B'ezrat HaShem
by cheerios789
Summary: Charlotte Elizabeth Nacht was a loud and obnoxious woman. She was also a student, a friend, and a cripple. She loved her life though; spend all night playing video games, go to school, go to work, then get home and start the cycle all over again. Charlie's life was about to get a little more complicated and weird, and not even give her the common courtesy of asking first.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: Hello you wonderful and sexy people. I have a few things to mention before you decide to read this fiction, so please bear with me. First, I have rated this as M, because of the flagrant use of "adult language" and violence. I am not a smut writer, but there will be a dash of that in future chapters. It will not be graphic and I have written with it considerable caution. Mostly though it's a lot of cussing and violence. Secondly, the main character, Charlie, is Jewish. If you have a problem with Jewish people, I do not recommend this fic. If you are very devout and orthodox, well I hope you will forgive me. I am not and neither is Charlie. We are both of the Reform-borderline Atheist variety, though I must stress that there are no political/religious statements made in this fic. It's simply a fact about her personality and heritage. Anyways, the last thing I would like to mention is that this is definitely not a self-insert. Charlie is a character who has been rattling around in my head for a while now and I finally put to paper. There are certain similarities, but that's only because I'm writing what I know. And I know a lot about growing up in a loud Jewish family in Florida. :) So I hope you enjoy and I will gladly accept any criticism or comments, as this is my first piece to be shared with the world and I am well aware of my literary failings. _

* * *

"Son of a bitch", Charlie swore, "That fucking little demon kid … and his stupid fucking face."

Charlie stared at the small child's stupid fucking face.

_Correction_, she thought, _His stupid fucking holographic face._

Charlie was tired or, for the sake of being completely accurate, she was exhausted. She truly had no energy reserves left. Nicotine had run out, as had caffeine. She ran a hand through limp greasy hair, exhaled explosively, and took stock of her current physical condition. Her back felt bowed and stiff, her hands were permanently curled and cramped, more than small movements sent pain scorching up her arms, and her eyes (Oh god her eyes) were swollen, red, and gritty she could barely even see anymore. Charlie hip was stiff, but not painful. However she was well aware that it would make her pay for it later.

_Shit_, her attention snapped back to the child, _he's still talking._

_Well, at least, I can finally get some answers._

Charlie listened to the child, well Catalyst, drone on and on. And. On.

_Yes, yes, I figured most of this out already. Just get to the good stuff._

When the stupid-demon-Catalyst-child finally finished talking, he left her with three options. None of them were particularly appealing and this definitely felt like a "lesser of two or three evils" decision. Control, Synthesis, or Destruction; they all had major flaws, not the least of which was that they all ended with her demise.

_So I'll pick the one that causes the least bad. Synthesis. At least the geth and EDI will get a happily ever after._

"Brutal Calculus." She whispered to the room.

"Shit, Calculus!" A quick glance at the clock confirmed her suspicions of the impending doom of her Advanced Calculus exam.

_God forbid I'm late, Tim will wet himself. _

Snickering at the thought of her best friend's panic attack, she directed her character to middle of the room and watched the scene unfurl.

"Well that was properly dramatic." Charlie quickly saved the game and slowly stood to crack her back.

She had about ten minutes to change and hit the road. She wasn't exactly in a hurry though. Feeling strangely accomplished at finishing the trilogy of games, Charlie stumbled around the room trying (and failing) to quietly put clothes on. Charlie had never been accused possessing grace though. Her attempt at putting jeans on ended with her just barely managing to catch herself on the metal bar attached to the wall.

_Well that could have been a lot worse._

She eventually did manage to get her pants and leaned over her not-really-conscious boyfriend and gave him a kiss.

"Hey sleepy" She whispered, "That's some rank morning breath."

Justin's undoubtedly eloquent retort was somewhat hindered by him forgetting how to speak.

"Indeed, love, but I've really got to go. I'll see you tonight … at some point … when I get out." Charlie's sentence was broken by disgusting yet sweet kisses from Justin.

Justin attempted speech one more time before latching on to her arm and pulling her into bed.

* * *

Now running completely late, Charlie started her van's engine with a silent prayer and backed out of her driveway. Thankfully Justin had wiped away all thoughts of Mass Effect and that left her brain to quietly turn over memorized theorems most of the way to class. She pulled into the driveway of Tim's apartment complex and gave him a call. He had actually called her a few times already, but Charlie really hated to answer her phone. As someone who was perpetually late, she didn't like to give accounts of her whereabouts. It was much easier to just drive little faster or forgo a shower to make up lost time.

"Tim, darling, you've got five minutes to get that sweet ass out here. I'm not stopping, just slowing down a little. Move it, soldier!" She giggled at Tim's flustered and indignant yelling at her and chucked the phone onto the passenger seat without hanging up. She parked her van in front of the apartment stairs and looked sweetly at Tim's enraged face bouncing down the steps. He opened the door and threw her phone at her without looking down at the seat out with the ease of habit.

After he slammed the door and Charlie had started driving again he turned to her, "Where have you been for the past two days?"

Charlie grimaced at the road. "Uh … studying?"

She fixed him with a wry grin, "You know that there this a test today … right?"

Tim shook his head, closed his eyes, and said, "Which game?" He had known Charlie for far too long to not know the only reason she would disappear for days, especially if they were weekdays.

She gave him a look. "I didn't get a game. I was working … I uh got called in. You know that _goy_ manager is always on my ass."

Tim's head snapped to her with a look of smug satisfaction and chuckled, "You should never play poker. You cuss all the time, but you don't hide behind the torah unless you're lying."

Charlie's face scrunched up and had an accusation of Tim's antisemitism on the tip of her tongue, when he cut her off.

"Actually I don't care. Did you get to problem 13.4?"

"All done with the banter then? It's been two days since I've seen you, Tim. You know I need this."

"Char", Tim said sharply, "The test is now … we'll banter later."

Charlie sighed, "Fine which one is 13.4?"

* * *

The campus was beautiful with landscaped lawns and architecturally stunning buildings. Charlie, however, rarely walked the beautiful paths and tended to stay in the back corner of the campus where the tiny Mathematics department was sandwiched between the even smaller Physics department and the slightly larger Computer Science department. The school was primarily an Art, Music, and Liberal Arts university. Though the Engineering department was gaining some steam. Charlie unrepentantly referred to majority of student's degrees as MRS degrees, with the superior smugness that comes with having personally chosen a "hard science" degree. Pure Mathematics with a double major in Computer Science (which she claimed she only like for the theory classes), Charlie may be intelligent, but she made no effort to hide her smugness about it.

If it wasn't for the fact that she would schedule bi-weekly study sessions with more than half of her classes in attendance and the fact that she made every effort to make sure they all passed, she may have taken more grief for her attitude. However, she was surprisingly friends with most of the people she met, even though her "banter" with friends frequently bordered on abusive.

Charlie had not had many friends before she got into college and was a borderline recluse in high school with a single exception. Rugby. She put a gross majority of her time into the sport during her teen years and between work outs and doing increasingly immature things with her mates she was not quite sure how she graduated at all. However, Florida has never exactly been the shining star of education in the states. Charlie would give a lot of things to continue playing the sport, but after a particularly hairy injury involving a 300 lb beast of a woman and her shattered right hip that wasn't much of an option.

Charlie had politely declined the leg brace, but was then politely told to stuff it and it was forced on her anyway. Even with the pronounced limp and the more than just a little muscle mass turned to soft tissue, she was still impressive looking. At 6'1, she didn't really look up to many people. Charlie's overall build was due in large credit to her grandfather's German heritage, with her broad shoulders, long legs, and blue-gray eyes. However, she quite happily had stolen her Jewish grandmother's light olive skin, black curly hair, and obscenely large eyes. Okay she had gotten the nose as well, but with so much damage the poor thing had taken over the years; that was hardly genetics fault.

Charlie awkward gait through campus came to a slow in front of the building. "You go ahead. I want to finish this." She said to Tim, as she took another drag.

"Nah I'll stay here." Tim shuffled about nervously staring at the building.

Charlie laughed her friend's duress and plopped rather ungracefully on the bench. She turned her attention to staring at whatever new monstrosity shamelessly art called by some senior student, had found its way to the courtyard. At first she was convinced that it was perfectly hideous. At least twice her height and made out of some solid black stone. The stone was buffed to a perfect sheen. It was just a pillar, a large triangle prism. There was something so wrong about it, though. Charlie didn't know exactly what it was, but it bothered her.

_Maybe the dimensions are wrong? _

She hobbled over the structure to solve the mystery, because she knew that there was no she was going to focus on her exam if she didn't figure it out. When she was just a few feet away from it, she stopped. She heard a buzzing like a hum, but more aggressive. Charlie's skin prickled as it felt like the sound was permeating her flesh. It wasn't loud enough to be causing this feeling, she knew that. Charlie had been in enough bars and stood in front of enough bass speakers to know that there was no way her body should be reacting this way to such a soft sound.

"Maybe this is something from the Physics lab? Soundwave blah-blah-blah machine?" She whispered the words or maybe she didn't even say them aloud. Whatever this was it was intoxicating. She took another step forward.

Charlie didn't think she moaned, but it was entirely possible. The force should have knocked her over, but it felt like it was supporting her, helping her. It wasn't obtrusive or constricting, it was soothing like being carried by a warm ocean. The thrumming was more intense here almost violent, but she found that she loved it. It was getting difficult to feel her extremities, but "Fuck it" she thought it was bliss.

"Shit!" Charlie yelped as her fingers were burnt. She quickly dropped the cigarette and stuck her fingers in her mouth. The pain didn't make the thrumming stop, but did force it to the back of her mind. She shook her head and decided to reexamine the pillar. It definitely didn't feel wrong this close up, it felt decidedly right. It was odd though. She could not figure out what it was made of. Definitely not stone as she first thought. It might have been metal, she mused as she slowly circled the pillar, but no there are no seams .

_I don't care how good of a welder you are … you can't build something so … perfect._

She stopped abruptly. Charlie stared at a portion of one the faces, it looked ever so slightly dulled. There was a pattern to it, as well. As if a hand had deliberately traced a looping calligraphy.

Charlie hesitated only for a second before moving her hand to follow the tracing. She was surprised to discover that the metal was warm to the touch and that the tracing was actually a slight groove in the pillar. It wasn't carved in, but it was as if it had been worn down over time by a much larger hand. As she followed the grooves the thrumming shifted and instead of what could be considered background noise, it suddenly gained a rhythm almost like music. She tried to drag it out, to slow her hand so that the music lasted for a longer time. She knew when she reached the end that it would stop and she was positive that her everything would end. The desperate madness took her mind and then was eased slowly away by the thrumming. There were no thoughts, no self, no Charlie, just this just the music. As her fingers finished their delicate dance across the surface, she knew that she moaned then. When the blackness took her, she welcomed it.


	2. Chapter 2

Charlie's first waking thoughts were "What a lovely nap." Followed quickly by, "Fucking hell, the test." Soon to be followed by, "Ugh, I'm wet."

She quickly sat up and opened her eyes, which is when all of the previous thoughts coalesced into one succinct question.

"What. The. Fuck?"

She was sitting in a jungle. A real, honest to god, South American Amazon style jungle, it came complete with tall trees with bases wider than she was tall. Charlie craned her neck up to stare at a canopy of limbs and leaves. She couldn't see a sky, but the jungle was lit well enough for it to still be fairly early in the day. She laid there staring at the impossibility of her situation. She could not find a single logical answer for this. Charlie had lived in Florida her entire life and while most of that had taken place in a city; she knew that none of this foliage was native to her home state.

_Was I attacked? _She asked herself.

_Oh yes, the devious plan of dragging a poor crippled 25 year old student to South America and leaving her there. Dastardly!_

Even her snarky comeback did little to help her mood or bewilderment.

So she decided to turn her attention to more immediate concerns. Like the fact that she was wet. Charlie reached around and touched her back, while keeping a wary eye on her surroundings. She had watched enough nature documentaries to know of the many many dangers of the Amazon. At least in Florida, she could easily identify the dangers both in and out of the water. Charlie wasn't easily scared, but she had seen enough cottonmouths, eastern diamondbacks, and gators in the wild to know that caution is a hell of a good thing. The problem was that she didn't have an internal encyclopedia of the wildlife for this jungle. Hell, she wasn't even sure which jungle that was.

After confirming that she was in fact damp, she came to the truly brilliant conclusion that it was because she had been laying in mud.

_Alright first things first, I've got to stand up on my own. Not my favorite thing to do, but we all have to start somewhere. _

Charlie began the often painful and tedious task of getting upright. She rolled over onto left side and got onto her stomach, then braced her hands under her as if was about to do a pushup. She then slowly curled her left leg up to a crouch. This was usually the painful part, as it would shift her right hip and it always felt like she could feel the pins screaming a protest. The doctors assured her that was in her mind or psychosomatic, but fuck them they don't know shit. It hurts.

Charlie braced herself for the strain and then pain, but it never came. Her left leg and hip complied quickly and easily to the commands her brain sent them. So she stood up. She stood up more quickly than she was used to and the weight of brace decided that it would take that moment to shift her off balance. There was nothing for her to do, but shout "Fuck!" and fall heavily to the ground. Again she braced herself for incredible pain and again none came. Well other than where the brace pinched her skin and where her bum was sore from an abrupt introduction to the ground.

Charlie was stunned. For the first time since she woke up she glanced down to her legs. What she found was more shocking and terrifying than waking up alone in a strange jungle. Her legs were smaller. Her pants were, at least, a few sizes too small and her leg brace was loose. Like it didn't fit and would either need to be adjusted or more likely replaced. Charlie just sat there touching her legs. She quickly rolled up the pant leg on her left side and giggled at what she saw, toned lean muscle. She knew these were her legs, she remembered the way they looked in those ridiculous and wonderful rugby shorts covered in mud. A thought occurred to her and grabbed her torso and worked her way up to her chest and over and down her arms. Everywhere she touched was her body before that nasty hit and fall, back when she spent most of her off-hours in the gym or on the field. She sat there giggling like an idiot. Then she touched her hair, it was incredibly short. She had never had really long hair, but she couldn't remember it being this short. The sides were buzzed, but the top … the top was longer. She pulled it into her eyes and stared at it.

Blue.

It was neon blue.

"But … I've only dyed my hair once."

Charlie had only had blue hair one time. It was the year she joined the Rebels. The girls told her that long hair was a liability on the field, they were right, and whisked her away to a salon. She was trying to decide what to get when Karen had started teasing her and informed Charlie that she was in fact too girly looking. Well that was also true. Even with the muscles and the height, she always had a large chest. She just could not get rid of it. It made any kind of uniform a pain and it made running a terrible sport. So Karen announced to the hairdresser that Charlie was going to rock a faux-hawk and that it was going to be bright blue. Charlie wasn't really sure she liked the style, but her mother's face when she got home that night made up her mind and she kept it.

However, that was when she was fifteen, but she's twenty-five now.

She slowly stood up again and looked down at herself.

_But I don't look twenty-five. I look fifteen._

_I'm fifteen._

_I'm in a jungle._

_I'm a child._

_Holy fuck._

After standing there like an idiot for a few minutes, hours, whatever. Charlie started unbuckling her brace. She had some reason and it was logical, naturally, but the real reason she was taking it off was … she was curious. If her hip was fine then maybe she was fifteen again. Maybe the past ten years had been a dream. That didn't explain her being in this jungle, but it was the only theory she had really.

The brace fell off and she started to tentatively stretch her legs. Within minutes she was doing jumping jacks and whooping like a little schoolgirl. Then she did the only sensible thing and punted the brace into the jungle.

The thrill of being young, healthy, and strong had not quite left Charlie, but it was definitely being tempered by caution of the jungle. She decided that the best course of action was to take stock of her supplies and then find the trail of whoever had left her there and follow it. The supplies were easy. One filthy black t-shirt, one equally as filthy pair of jeans, one pair of sandals, her wallet, and a Swiss army knife. The biggest problem was her pants. They were so loose that they were in constant danger of falling off of her. Of course this didn't come as any great surprise as she had effectively lost about 70 lbs. So Charlie used the knife and put a new notch in her belt. When that task was complete, she reverently kissed the knife and slipped it back in her pocket.

"Thank you, Grandpa." She announced to no one in particular.

Other than her precious multi-tool, her supplies were pitiful. The wallet contained a multitude of receipts, cards, her ID, and a paltry four dollars. Charlie violently shoved the wallet back in her pants. With her resources, or rather lack thereof, now accounted for she turned her attention to the jungle.

She had awoken in a small sort of clearing, which was a generous description of the place. The predominant foliage was a large leafy fern, while it, thankfully, didn't bear any thorns it had the annoying tendency to cling to her clothing. The floor was a carpet of dead leaves and rotting plants which covered a layer of thick black mud. Charlie slowly paced the small clearing cursing every god but her bubbe's and could not find a single track or broken path anywhere. She stared up at the unbroken canopy of trees and then back at the muddy floor, before letting loose a cry of frustration.

"I mean, I'm not a fucking girl scout, but come on. You don't drag an unconscious chick through a jungle without leaving some kind of evidence." She gave the jungle carpet a murderous glare. The carpet, however resisted her intimidation tactic and provided no answers.

Frustration was quickly becoming her primary emotion as she wrestled with it. "Okay", she slapped herself, "Charlotte Elizabeth Nacht, you're a grown woman get it together. If you can't find a path just make your own and we'll go from there."

So she picked the easiest direction to traverse and headed into the unknown jungle. Panic was attempting to sink its filthy claws into her mind. So Charlie used her age old tactic of talking to herself. She was aware that this might be seen as insanity, but she had always thought that that was ridiculous. Just because a truly crazy person talked to themselves, did not mean that everyone who talked to themselves were crazy. Causation does not imply correlation. Crazy people usually had hair too, but that does not mean that everyone with hair is crazy. Charlie was not crazy. Charlie was a former twenty-five year old turned fifteen year old, but that did not mean she was crazy. Charlie was not crazy. To prove that she wasn't crazy she recounted the morning's events. Spent the night playing a video game, kissed Justin, drove to school, snarked at Tim … and then. The pillar?

Charlie stopped walking

_The pillar?_

_No, that's crazy. This isn't a fairytale or a video game, this is actually happening. Magical pillars don't exist and if you continue this train of thought maybe you truly are crazy. Look you know this is real, Char. You're sweating from the heat, the little scratches from where that branch grabbed you kind of stings, and you can smell the musky odor of rotting plant life. No, sweetie, this is real. Therefore if this is real, then there must be a logical reason as to how you came to be here. We'll figure it out._

Charlie resumed her trek through the dense jungle. However, the nagging thoughts of what was and what wasn't real continued to plague her.

She wasn't sure how long she had been walking. The only timepiece she ever had was her phone and that was in her bag and that was back on the bench. Right? Yeah she definitely left it back on the bench next Tim.

_Tim._

_Nope don't think about it. Just keep walking. Now is not the time._

Anyways Charlie wasn't sure what time it was, but the jungle appeared to be rapidly darkening. That was more than a little disconcerting. She had yet to see much wildlife though. A few birds she didn't recognize and quite a few lizards and a couple of snakes. The snakes she gave a wide berth to, but they appeared to be of the constrictor variety so she wasn't terribly concerned about them. However, she was well aware that most jungle wildlife was primarily nocturnal and that was a valid concern. Especially since she had never hunted and was armed with naught, but a pocket knife.

Charlotte froze. She heard something. That something was grunting and sounded like it was digging.

_A dog._

_Dogs don't grunt, idiot._

_Uh … a pig?_

_Pigs are domesticated. Come on you can do this, I believe in you._

_Shit, a boar._

_We have a winner._

With this inner monologue running through her mind, she crouched down in the underbrush and attempted to quietly peer out at the boar. She had never seen a real boar before, but she was well aware that a wild boar was a force to be reckoned with and should be avoided at any cost. She quietly unfolded the tiny pocket knife, though she was fairly certain it was useless against anything larger than a puppy. It still made her feel better though.

Charlie's eyes sought and found the beast. That wasn't a boar. That was something else. It was definitely boar-shaped, but it had scales. It had scales and spines. It had scales and spines and was huge. At least four feet tall and more than double that in length.

_Is it a dinosaur?_

_Your guess is literally as good as mine, kiddo._

_Crap._

Charlie must have made some sort of noise, because the beast (and it was truly a beast) snapped its head and looked straight at her. Charlie liked to consider herself a brave woman. She had been in a number of bar fights in her time and had taken on women twice her size on the field with little to no trepidation. She had gone swimming in springs and lakes with some truly massive gators and one time was almost struck by a rattlesnake. Each one of those times, she had handled herself with dignity and wisdom and had simply gotten out of the way of danger. However, when the beast roared at her and charged, Charlie froze and screamed.

Two shots rang through the jungle followed quickly by two more. The beast staggered, let out a pitiful whine, and slumped to the ground with a heavy thump. Of course, this didn't particularly help Charlie's frazzled state. Her screaming stopped and left her shaking and crying. There was no inner monologue, there was only the realization that she could have died. She could have died a horrible and undoubtedly painful death.

"Hey, hey" The strange voice that belonged to a man said softly. A hand reached out and gently touched her arm.

To Charlie it felt like an attack, everything felt like it was about to attack her. Her world had just become very real and if she had given it any thought she would have realized that her previous ruminations over the philosophy of what is and isn't real were laughable. This right here was real, the world looked sharp and it was like her eyes could see every detail. She had two options: fight or flight. She chose fight.

Charlie's knife hand went sweeping up to the man's face. She felt like she was moving quickly, but the man easily gripped her wrist and prevented the attack. However he didn't see her leg shooting out simultaneously to kick his knee. With a feral cry, Charlie threw herself on the man and the two of them hit ground with a grunt. Now straddling the prone and winded man who had 165 lbs of crazy on his chest, she tried to punch his face with her free left hand. Again he grabbed her wrist, he may have been saying something to her, but she was not the mood to decipher his speech. Both of her hands were captured and he was wrestling them around to her back. However, her head was free so she slammed that down onto his face with an audible crunch.

"Son of a bitch!" The mystery man cursed at her.

Head butts are not a fun tactic. It's true that they look really cool in movies or games, but in actual practice they should only be used as a true last resort. Mostly because you are just as likely to injure yourself as the person you are attacking. So unless you are wearing some kind of protective gear on your face, which of course would look ridiculous not to mention tacky, we cannot recommend it.

The pain from aforementioned head butt was enough to stun Charlie out of the panic induced attack. She just sat there on the stranger's chest staring dumbly at his bloodied nose.

"Huh" She eloquently stated.

The man quickly took charge and flipped her to the ground and pinned her down her down with his weight.

"Okay, you ready stop now?"

She just stared at him. Her body hadn't quite caught up to what was happening and was violently trembling. The blood from his nose had started to drip down on her face. Charlie knew she must be covered in it. Her face was covered in this stranger's blood. She remembered the boar's fate and the sound that was definitely some kind of gun.

_I attacked a strange man in a jungle and he has a gun. Shit, he's going to kill me. _

Her body didn't know what to make of this revelation so it concluded that the only logical response was to vomit.

Charlie found herself on her hands and knees five minutes later with the contents of her stomach laying in a disgusting pool on the jungle floor.

_Weird, when did I have barbecue?_

"Here, take this." The man offered her a piece of cloth.

She took it and mumbled a thanks. After cleaning her face, Charlie stood and gave the man an apologetic glance.

"Sorry about the face."

"It's nothing. I've had worse." After a moment he added. "So what the hell are you doing out here?"

Charlie had no response to that. So she gave him a shrug and a shake of her head.

"Alright. Well unless you want to spend the night out here. We better get moving." He tossed Charlie her now folded knife and started walking away.

Charlie stood there holding her knife and his rag. She looked back at the now very dead beast and then back at the strange man's rapidly disappearing back.

_So, I guess this isn't much of a choice._

Her legs agreed and she quickly caught up with the man.

The man's name turned out to be Ethan Wallis and though they didn't talk much as he steadily led her through the jungle. Ethan was a few inches taller that Charlie and appeared to be mostly built of solid muscle. His accent was decidedly southern US, but she wasn't sure exactly which state. Probably Georgia or Alabama, she decided. He had a military buzzcut and carried himself like a soldier. His clothes were unremarkable, camo pants, dark brown shirt, and boots.

_Yes, definitely military. Well that's a relief. They can get me home._

There was only one thing about Ethan that concerned Charlie, his gun. As they trudged through the jungle, she stared at it. It was definitely a weapon she decided and as she couldn't see any other gun it had to be the one she had heard. However, it didn't look like any gun had ever seen. It didn't appear to have a barrel and it was too blocky. It looked like a rectangular block with a grip and a stock. It was so strange and felt completely out of place, but there it was anyway slung over Ethan's shoulder.

Ethan came to an abrupt stop and out a high whistle. A few seconds later a light flashed from up high and he continued walking. Charlie was on the verge of asking him about it when they walked out of the jungle completely and into some sort of field. It was completely dark, but she could make out neat dirt rows in the ground on either side of the narrow dirt path they were walking on. Off in the distance were lights, real lights, florescent man-made light. Charlie wanted to giggle with happiness, there were people here. Everything was going to be alright. It wasn't civilization, but it was a far cry from the muggy jungle that was apparently filled with dinosaurs.

The dino-boar thing still bothered her.

However, the prospect of a shower and bed was in front of her and that outweighed any thoughts of the earlier terror.

There were a few people wandering about as they neared the buildings. The adults she saw were relaxing and socializing and there were a few very dirty and happy children running around. When they saw Charlie though every single person reacted the same way, they stopped and stared at her. Unabashed staring. She offered them smiles and a wave, but only a few reciprocated the sentiment. Charlie was starting to get very nervous about where she was. The previous feeling of safety and civilization was replaced by fear.

So with Dueling Banjos playing in her head, they came to a stop in front of one the identical plastic buildings.

Ethan turned and gave her a stern, but not unkindly face. "Now my wife's a doctor. So I'll have her give you a once over." He glanced down at Charlie's now bare and filthy feet.

"You should have told me you lost the shoes."

"One of the thongs ripped off and I don't know where the other one went." She shrugged. "Besides there wasn't anything you could have done."

Ethan shrugged and pointed to a hose, "Rinse your feet before you come in." Then he walked through the door.

The water felt better than it should have and was blessedly cold. Charlie grimaced at the cuts that covered her feet. She never really liked to wear shoes and preferred the option and going barefoot whenever possible, so she always wore sandals. Right now, though for one of the first times in her life she wished she had put on actual shoes, preferably large heavy combat boots.

With her feet as clean as they were going to get, she walked up the steps and into to the house. The décor was simple, but weird. The front door opened into a living room with a couch and armchair. It should have felt familiar, but the patterns and style were wrong. The colors were a bright purple and the design was an intricate looping floral design. The word garish did not come close to describe them. Voices coming from a back room interrupted her thoughts about the dubious tastes of the interior decorator; and she found herself following the noise. There were some pictures lining the hall and she gave them a glance as she passed. Ethan and a woman in a white wedding dress. The same woman giving a naked baby a bath. Ethan and a group of men saluting something off camera.

_Yup, like I thought. Soldier._

Charlie knocked on the door with the voices when she turned back to the picture with the soldiers. Those weren't soldiers. She didn't recognize the uniform. The cut and color was wrong.

_The hell?_

The door was opened by a very small woman with smiling eyes and brown hair swept up in a bun. The height difference was significant and Charlie subconsciously tried to make herself look smaller.

"Well don't just stand there. Come on, let's get you cleaned up and into a bed." The tiny woman swept the giant woman into the room and sat her down on a counter top next to Ethan. The room, Charlie decided, was definitely familiar. It was a brightly lit patient room, with a bed in the corner covered with a plastic sheet. _Could be worse she could have made me sit there._ With the exception of the wall with the bed, the walls were lined with cupboards and cabinet, with various instruments attached to walls. Charlie didn't know or care enough about medicine to know or care what they did.

Debbie, when she finally introduced herself, did not stop talking and Charlie effectively ignored her after she was sure that what was being said wasn't actually important. Debbie moved in quick and precise movements as she sterilized Charlie's feet and then proceeded to rub an ointment into the cuts. Then she covered Charlie's feet with a clear plastic, that looked suspiciously like saran wrap. Charlie was confused, but that was really nothing new. Nothing today made any sense. Logic decided to take a vacation and did not give Charlie a two week notice.

"I said," Debbie was patiently repeating. "Just sit here for a few minutes and don't stand until the gel finishes its job."

"Oh right."

Deborah gave Charlie a sympathetic look. "Well do you want to tell me who you are?"

"Charlie."

Debbie raised eyebrows expectantly.

"Charlotte Elizabeth Nacht."

Debbie was writing this down on a tablet and raised one eyebrow at her.

"N-A-C-H-T"

"Thank you. Do you want to tell me how you ended up in the jungle or do you want to wait till the morning?"

"Morning, if that's ok." Charlie paused. "Is there a shower I could use?"

"Oh, of course and Ethan is getting the spare room set up now."

Charlie let a real smile replace the fake one she had plastered on when she first met the doctor. Debbie was busy removing the wrap off of Charlie's feet.

"Ok, wiggle your toes and tell me how they feel."

Charlie foot felt cold when it was exposed to the air and the warm tingling feeling was quickly fading. With a smirk at the doctor she wiggled her toes obnoxiously and then looked down at them.

They were perfect. Well they were still Charlie's size 11 feet with the long toes and the slightly longer second toe, but they were healed. There weren't even any scars. Charlie grabbed her foot and pulled it to her face and closely examined it. The skin was rather sensitive and not just where the cuts had been, but everywhere the gel had touched.

"What did you do?" Charlie tried to keep the accusative tone out of her voice, but failed.

"Honey, it's just medi-gel. Now scoot off to the shower."

_Medi-gel. That's a word I know. I know that from something._

The shower was so deliciously steamy, that Charlie stepped in fully dressed and washed the mud away before stripping down. After scrubbing down three or four times, Charlie regretfully turned off the water and toweled off. The foggy mirror seemed to taunt her. She had yet to see her new-old body properly.

_What if my face is different? I might not be me._

_Would that be so bad? _

_Yes. _

Charlie took a deep breath, pulled the towel off and wiped the mirror down.

"It's me." She giggled.

"Well it's me when I was younger, but fuck it I'm still me."

_Fifteen._

_Yes, fifteen, but I don't care. Besides look at my chest, I forgot they started out this high up._

Humming to herself she draped her clothes over a bar in the shower, collected her tool and wallet, and slipped on the shirt and shorts left in the room for her. Charlie had never been a vain woman, but the many years of a sedentary life had left their unattractive mark on her self-image and seeing the girl in the mirror with the her old body was almost too much. She wanted to be nothing but happy at the youthful face, but there was a strange longing in her for her old body. The scars weren't pretty, but they told the tale of the past 10 years of her life. The broken mess was what Justin fell in love with, he never even knew this girl. Only her mind was the same and she wasn't sure if she could trust that anymore.

_Justin is probably terrified right now._

So, it wasn't the giddy child who left the bathroom, was directed to a small bedroom, and crawled under the covers clutching her only possessions; it was the grown woman who was missing her best friend and lover. Justin. That sweet man who didn't care that walking hurt her and instead taught her to play guitar and drive stick shifts, so loving and kind that she was sure he was the polar opposite of her. She missed him. Justin knew her crazy and she knew his. And his brand of crazy could not handle her disappearing like this. It would break him. Charlie would break him, just like he had feared.

_You can't even prove that he's real. You can't prove he loved you. _

With that thought the events of the day truly came crashing down around Charlie and she finally broke down and cried. Charlie knew how to cry, she had done so many times over the years, less after Justin found her, but the tears were still known to happen. She knew that this was going to be a cry that wouldn't end tonight. This would be an ache that stayed and left a scar.

Laid there for awhile gripping her only two possessions and she had a thought. She opened her wallet and sifted through the cards with a sort of desperate panic. When she slid the card she was looking for out of the sliding plastic, her hands were visibly trembling. Charlie lifted the card to the window and tilted it so it reflected the light and read it.

Her face.

Her face and name.

Her face and name and birth date.

_1987_

She kissed the card and went to sleep gripping the most precious item she had ever owned. Her Florida driver's license.


	3. Chapter 3

Morning came unbidden as it always does. We would love to tell you, dear reader, that Charlie awoke sweetly in sun-warmed sheets. That wouldn't be fair to you, because it would be a fantastical lie.

Charlotte Nacht woke up tangled in stiflingly hot sheets, with a bright light in her eyes, a too warm body next to her, and another body on her feet.

"Barnabus! Get off the bed." She yelled at her boyfriend's dog and kicked him off the bed. She started to push Justin off of her when her brain informed that this body was far too light and was giggling. She took a cautious peek at the bed intruder and saw a little brown-haired girl smiling with all of the innocence and joy that can only exist when you're five.

"Doggy fell off the bed." Charlie was informed in between giggles.

Charlie's heart was racing, this wasn't her bed and yesterday hadn't been some strange stress dream and she wasn't able to come to this conclusion gradually on her own. A little ball of giggles was informing her of this truth. Thankfully for Grace Talitha, she was simply too adorable to be angry at. Not that she was unaware of this fact, Grace was well aware that there were few things she couldn't do if she just smiled and giggled. So she knew exactly how Charlie was going to react, even before Charlie was aware of it.

Charlie walked into the kitchen with the bundle of giggles tucked under one arm and the other arm was busy keeping Grace well supplied with aforementioned giggles. Debbie gave Charlie an alarmed look.

Charlie set the girl down, "I'm sorry, Debbie. She was just … I woke up and … "

Debbie raised a hand to stop the flustered girl. "It's ok. You're fine. I'm sorry that she woke you up." She gave Grace a mock stern look, "One day you're going to have to learn some manners."

Brazenly ignoring her mother, Grace ran out of the room under the premise of "Gonna get doggy."

With a full night of sleep and a much clearer head, Charlie was able to appraise Deborah Wallis. Deborah could not have been much older than Charlie, well old Charlie not this new young Charlie. The woman was probably in her early thirties, Charlie surmised. As she ate the breakfast that Deborah offered her, she tried to get a handle on the situation.

_So I'm in the home of a young couple, an Ex-military and a doctor, they have a young daughter. I'm definitely in some kind of small village. Commune hippies? _

_Well that doesn't really fit with the rather excellent medical care you received last night._

_I refuse to believe that I'm on some secret government base located in the Amazon. This is not the X-Files._

_So the whole waking up in a rainforest and then being attacked by a dinosaur isn't weird at all? I mean you have to, at least, admit that Mulder would find this all a little bit intriguing._

_True. However, there wasn't really enough security around the outskirts for this to be a base, hell I didn't even see a fence. I'm not going to pretend to understand this, but it just doesn't fit._

Debbie kept Charlie in her peripheral vision while she cleaned up the kitchen. She thought that the poor girl looked lost. She was fairly positive that Charlie was young, but there was something in the way the girl carried herself that struck Debbie as odd. Charlie seemed to favor her left side, which was strange since she was clearly right handed. The girl's face seemed off as well, she looked troubled and old. Debbie exhaled as she put the last of the dishes away. She was afraid she knew Charlie's story before the girl had a chance to tell it. She had seen these signs before. It was one of the reasons that Debbie had decided that a quiet colony life was preferable to the bustle of an emergency room.

"So." Debbie plastered on her best gentle doctor face. "Why don't we step in the office and see if I can give you a full work up and make sure you didn't pick up something nasty in the jungle."

"Sure."

"And maybe I can get you to give me a few details of your story?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. I can probably do that."

Debbie led Charlie back the same patient room and offered her a chair. Then she pulled a small device off of the wall and proceeded to move it around Charlie's body.

"Ethan tells me that you don't remember how you got here?"

"Yeah that's right."

"Well what do you remember?"

"Well I was at school and I guess I just blacked out. Because the next thing I knew I was waking up in this rainforest."

"Where was this school?"

"Florida. Well Jacksonville, Fl; if I'm being specific."

Debbie almost dropped the device and gave Charlie a really strange look. Charlie thought it looked like disbelief, with a little bit of something else … sympathy? She perfectly understood the emotion of disbelief, feh, that's been her primary emotion for the past twenty-four hours.

"Florida?"

Charlie nodded her head.

"Earth?"

Charlie twisted her face up into the best "duh" look she had and nodded her head again.

"What was the date?"

"I'm not really sure. I think it was the second week in October?"

Charlie had a sinking feeling. Like her heart was attempting to reposition itself lower in her anatomy. She whispered, "Why?"

Debbie closed the scanner and set a reassuring hand on her patient's shoulder. "Well it's January 4."

"Where am I? You asked if I was from Earth, which implies that there is an option that isn't Earth."

Charlie wasn't concerned with the date. So what if it's a different month? She just lost ten years, what was a few months? Charlie had this gnawing ache in her chest that she knew where this conversation was going, but she wanted to hear the words out loud.

"You're on Mindoir." In response to Charlie's blank look, she added. "That's in the Attican Traverse."

_Attican Traverse … medi-gel …_

Charlie knew that she should know this. It was like a whisper in the back of her mind. She was fighting the urge to panic. Charlie just couldn't quite make the pieces fit. She tried to coax that little voice to tell her the truth, but it decided to remain frustratingly quiet.

"What year is it?" She asked the floor.

"2169"

Charlie knew that Debbie was continuing to speak. She could feel the woman walking around the room, no doubt continuing whatever tests she was going to run. However, Charlie could not be bothered with this information. Her mind was in shambles. 2169? How could that be right, she thought.

_Maybe I am crazy._

_If you were crazy, then that makes me crazy and I don't buy it._

Charlie was not convinced by her reasonable voice's opinion, but wisely chose not to argue the point. Her mind was in shambles, rapid-fire questions were being asked and she didn't have the brainpower to answer them all. The connotations of Debbie's revelation were massive. How did I get here, Where is Earth, What happened to all the people I knew, What form of technology got us out here, Did the warp field theory actually have merit, What happened in Game of Thrones? The pure absurdity of that last question caused Charlie to shake her head and take a deep breath. With a monumental effort she locked down the constant stream of queries and let her logical mind come to the forefront.

_So I'm either in 2169 or I'm not, right?_

_Correct._

_If I am in 2169, then that would mean I travelled to my relative future. However, if I am not in 2169, then that means Debbie is lying to me. _

_Again correct. So putting aside any thoughts of time travel, does Debbie have any reason to lie to you? What would she gain from this?_

Charlie gave the woman a calculating stare. Debbie was in the process of taking a blood sample from Charlie and assumed that the glare was due to the pain. "Sorry dear, it's just a prick. I'll be done in a minute."

The woman looked normal enough to Charlie. Blue shirt and khaki pants underneath a lab coat were decidedly not nefarious and her face was filled with kind emotions and the hint of pity was still there. Charlie resumed her steady stare at the floor, she hated pity. Pity from doctors was the worst kind of pity. She knew that look so well. Every time they told her that she needed to resume physical therapy or the swelling would never go down, every time they hinted at the possibility of her losing her ability to walk at all, and each one of those times she would lose her tentative control of her temper and usually throw something at them while letting loose a stream of curses that would have made her Rabbi blush. Each one of those visits ended with the same look of pity.

Charlie gave the floor a scowl in retaliation for making her think of the memory.

_She looks nice enough. Why would she lie?_

_Oh? She's a nice person? Well by all means trust her with then. Of course if you do that means you are willing to accept the idea that it's 2169, but you're right if someone seems nice then you should just go ahead and trust them._

_Shtup ir. _

_Shame shame, such language coming from your mouth. What would bubbe say?_

_She'd probably agree._

"Alright Charlie, I'm all done here. I know Ethan waiting for you in the living room if you wouldn't mind heading out there."

Charlie stood up out of the chair and looked down at the tiny woman. Not sure if she should trust her, she gave her a wary glance and heading out to the living room to find Ethan.

She found Ethan sitting on the couch watching Grace build a fort out of pillows and garish cushions. Ethan asked Charlie a few polite, general questions about where she was from. He didn't want to scare the girl off, but the wary and distrusting looks she kept shooting him forced him to treat her like a wounded animal. "I can't help but notice that your accent isn't quite what I expected from a Floridian." He cautiously probed.

The question was not unfamiliar to Charlie. She grew up in Jacksonville, but in a small Jewish community with her grandparents so, especially when she was flustered or under stress, her voice would mimic her bubbe's with all the exaggerated high tones.

"Well _I_ was raised in Florida, but my family is from New York. You know, the 'Great Jewish Exodus'." She gave Ethan a smirk as if that explained it all.

The look on Ethan's face meant that her explanation was clearly insufficient. "My Bubbe was the classic New York Jew, my grandfather wasn't, but that's a whole 'nother story. Anyways they all picked up and moved to the Sunshine State after my mother, God rest her soul, decided it was a fantastic time to start showing." She placed her hands over her stomach in mimicry of pregnancy.

Ethan sat there with his mouth open as if he was going to say something, but decided to drop it. He cleared his throat and asked something else. "So, you're Jewish?" He spaced the words out, desperately hoping that he wasn't saying something offensive.

"Well that's what my rabbi tells me anyway." Charlie gave a soft chuckle at the inside joke. She had never really been sure she actually believed in God or if was all just stories, but Moishe Applebaum had informed her, time and time again, that this actually made her a very good Jew. He encouraged her skepticism and engaged her in heated philosophical arguments weekly. Charlie had to admit that they were really good arguments and that the stories weren't bad either. She felt a sudden pang of homesickness for the nights full of good food, copious amounts of wine, and the heat of the same old argument with the old man.

**_"You're telling me that this 'all-powerful and all-knowing' God of yours just looked at Sodom and Gomorrah and thought 'Hey I just noticed those guys are doing some weird stuff. Guess I should kill them or whatever.' Never mind that there were innocent people living there. I mean I'm not so sure that I can get behind that kind of malicious god."_**

**_Applebaum studied his wine before taking a drink and raised a finger at her. "I have never said that he was a kind."_**

**_He saw the glint in Charlie's eyes that said she was about to spout Epicurus at him. "I would also like to point out that what is all this about 'your God'? I was there for you bat mitzvah, meshungina, I know that He's yours too." He raised his hand as her protest was sure to be forthcoming. "No, don't try denying it. He's got you now."_**

Charlie twisted her lips in a small smirk at the memory and then turned her attention back to Ethan.

"I'm sorry for prying, I've just never met a Jew before. I mean it's kind of like someone telling me that they're a gypsy …" He stopped that sentence at the raised eyebrow that Charlie was giving him. "Again, sorry." He finished lamely.

_I guess there wouldn't be many of us left in 2169._

_Oh so you're saying you believe this now?_

_Not quite yet._

* * *

Deborah was not sure what to make of the scans she had taken of Charlotte. First there were the broken bones; they had not been knitted at all. It appeared that they had been set, thankfully they had been set by someone with enough knowledge to set them properly, but the doctor hadn't used a bone knitter so she could still see the scar tissue. Her nose had also taken quite the abuse. It had been broken and re-broken more times than Dr. Wallis cared to count. Then there was the lack of a birth control implant. It was possible that she had refused the device, but it was part the basic healthcare package on Earth. Speaking of healthcare there was also the minor problem of the lack of vitamins in Charlotte's system. It was as if she had never had the puberty vitamin regiment that every human was given on Earth. The most troubling discovery had been the brain scan. The girl had had multiple concussions in the past year alone and none of them had been properly treated, as far she was concerned. They, again thankfully, had not been severe enough for permanent brain damage, but they were indicative of something.

"Systemic long term abuse" Deborah informed her husband, after she called him away from the living room.

"I don't know where she came from or how she got here, but she has not been treated well."

Ethan pondered his wife's revelation. He wasn't surprised, but that didn't make it any less disturbing. Charlotte's cautious way of moving, her distrusting stares, and even her panicked attack in the jungle; they all spoke of fear.

"Are you thinking it was slavers?"

"I can't say for sure. There wasn't any control chip or a scar." Debbie drew a ragged breath, "She could have been a game for those monsters. I can't say for sure, I didn't run a rape kit. I don't want to scare her. Ethan, she had some nasty scars. They, like everything else about her, have not been properly treated. It was like they just stitched her up with thread." She put a hand on Ethan's arm and looked straight up into his eyes, hers were gleaming with fury. "Ethan, no one uses thread anymore."

Ethan gave Debbie's arm a comforting pat. "If it's slavers, then we have to find out what she knows. If they're here …"

Debbie raised her hand at Ethan and put her clinical doctor's face back on, "Ethan, you talked to the girl. I don't think she's going to be able to tell us anything. It might be some form of PTSD and her mind is refusing to admit what happened. I've seen this quite a few times before."

Ethan opened his mouth to protest that it doesn't matter if she's damaged, because they need to know if the slavers are here. Debbie cut in before he could voice the opinion though. "Even if she could tell us, what would that change? We always knew that we were going to be out-manned and out-gunned if we were ever attacked. If, and I honestly do not have a better explanation for it, it is the slavers, there is nothing we can do about it. We already had our trade drop for the year and the Alliance isn't going to do a damn thing for a couple hundred separatists on the fringe of space, you know that better than anyone else.

"The way I see it, our best option is to take this as an advanced warning and shore up our defenses. However that is your call not mine, love."

Ethan rubbed his eyes and looked miserable. Damn the woman, she was right as usual. There wasn't anything he could do about it. Maybe if the girl had some time to realize her safety here, she could heal and then maybe she would tell them what they needed to know. Time, however, was something he wasn't sure they had. He had seen enough broken combat veterans to know that being pushy and demanding they get better, didn't do a damn thing. He exhaled and nodded his head at his wife.

"The others aren't going to like this." He paused then looked back at Debbie, "How old is she?"

"I'm not positive, but she's either fifteen or sixteen."

"Damn, I didn't think she'd be so young."

* * *

As it turned out, Ethan's prophetic statements regarding the rest of the colonist's opinion on Charlotte turned to be true. They did not like it. The founding members he spoke with were, putting it mildly, enraged. He understood, but he wasn't sure what the hell they wanted him to do differently. Was he supposed to leave a muddy teenage girl in the jungle? He reminded them all that they had put _him_ in charge of security and if he had not deemed her a security risk, then they had better deal with that. They had then informed Ethan that if she was going to continue staying on Mindoir that she was now his personal responsibility.

In the end, they agreed with his recommendation of beefing up the watches and also informing the rest of the community to be on guard for a possible attack. They didn't want to mention the possibility of it being a slaver attack, because that would definitely panic the civilians. So they left it as just a blanket warning.

So Ethan found himself walking back to his house that afternoon in a grim mood. He was going to have to find some way to deal with the girl. For six years they had called Mindoir home and in those six years there hadn't been any problems. It had been tough to stake a claim here on the planet, both politically and physically. Politically the Alliance had been against the idea. Of course the Alliance was against most the ideas the Sons of Sol toted. The Sons of Sol tried to have their voices heard on Earth. They were against the terrorists acts of other institutions with similar manifestos, but the media lumped them all together nonetheless. All they really wanted was for a little more caution when dealing with the alien races. Shanxi was a disaster and the Sons of Sol definitely wanted the war with the turians to end, but that did not mean that they should trust them either. The Alliance definitely shouldn't trust the rest of the galactic community, who had simply shut their eyes and stuck their fingers in their ears during the war. However that's exactly what the Alliance was doing. The Sons of Sol decided that they had had enough of the bickering and completely useless politics and after years of trying finally got permission to start a small colony on Mindoir. Like everyone else here on Mindoir, Ethan had his own reasons for being here. He had served on Shanxi, he knew the cost of war with the turians and he wasn't convinced that they weren't going to try and finish what they started. They didn't seem like a race that was accustomed to losing and he didn't want his Debbie on Earth when the inevitable war came.

So they came to Mindoir with a small enough group that they hopefully wouldn't be seen as profitable target to the batarians and cut ties to the System Alliance. Six years of hard labor and taming the wild landscape into farmland. Six years of very little trouble, until yesterday. As he approached the house he saw Charlie standing in the small yard staring slack-jawed at the sky. He chuckled softly at the scene, Charlie was completely ignorant of his little girl bouncing around and chattering non-stop at the teenager. Yes, trouble had a name. Charlie.

* * *

_Purple._

_I concur, though it's more of a light lavender, though._

_The sky isn't purple though._

_Well the Earth sky isn't, though again I must point out that it's more of a lavender._

_If the sky isn't Earth's sky, then I must be on a different planet._

_Brilliant deduction._

_We don't have the technology to get to other planets. There isn't another planet in our solar system that supports life._

_Well we didn't back where we came from._

_Et tu brute? I thought you were the one who didn't believe in time travel?_

_Love, I'm just going with the facts and right now a purple sky means that we're on another planet and that means that it's the future, and we might as well believe the pretty doctor and agree it's 2169._

_Purple? I thought you said it was lavender._

_Shtup ir._

Amusing inner dialogue aside, Charlie couldn't deny it's logic. The purple sky, the dinosaur thing, the magical ointment that made cuts disappear, and Debbie's testimony; she was in her future. As insane as that statement probably made her, it was the truth. It was rather odd that accepting that truth made Charlie feel so much better. It was the kind of relaxing confidence that came from getting to the end of a difficult proof and writing her favorite letters in the English, well Latin if we're being accurate, alphabet; QED.

So when Ethan Wallis walked up to her and motioned for her to follow him, she did so with a slightly lighter spring in her step.

"Do you have any experience with guns?" Ethan asked Charlie after leading her away from the village and towards a small shack that the other colonists, to his annoyance, called the armory.

The question took Charlie by surprise, but she quickly recovered. "No. I mean not really. Well not real guns. Well airsoft doesn't really count, so no. No I haven't."

Ethan glanced back at the girl and raised an eyebrow. "I'll just pretend that you said no."

They reached the shack and Ethan opened the door, belatedly realizing that it was unlocked.

"Dammit James, you had better hope you are in there or I am going to kick your ass when you get back." He growled.

The door swung revealing an empty room.

"Sucks to be James, I guess."

Ethan snapped his head back to glare at Charlie, who took an unconscious step backwards. He sighed and pointed to a chair. She took it, balanced on the its edge, and cast a wary look in Ethan's direction.

"Ok listen up, I'm not good at giving pep talks or being a comforting shoulder. There is really only one thing I am good at and that is keeping this colony safe. It has … come to my attention that it might not be as safe as I would like it to be." He stopped and tried to carefully pick his words so as not to sound accusatory towards Charlie. "You seem like someone who might want to learn to better defend herself. Is that right?"

Charlie wasn't sure what to make of this conversation. On one hand, yes she would like to learn how to defend herself, especially if the incident with the lizard-boar was an indication of her current lack of skills. But where was this coming from? What did Ethan mean with 'you look like someone'? Charlie decided the best thing to do was agree with the man, since that was clearly what he was expecting. So she nodded her head in the affirmative.

Ethan exhaled a breath he didn't realize he was holding. "Good. I've talked to the ones in charge of the colony and they have agreed to let you stay here. However, I've been volunteered as your … guardian, of sorts. So, here's how it's going to work." He walked over to the other chair and sat down. "Every day you are going to wake up at 0500, make your bed get some food and be out here by 0600, once here I will inform you of the day's activities. These will range from firearm practice, hand-to-hand combat training, wilderness survival, and learning to walk a patrol." He gave Charlie a stern look. "The weapons are never to leave this room unless you are accompanied by me or I have given you express permission. Do I make myself clear?"

"Are you going to put me through boot camp?"

"I asked you a question."

"_Oy vey ist mir_, you are putting me through boot camp." She gave me a wry grin and a mock salute. "Sir, yes, sir."

Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose and reminded himself again that this was a traumatized girl. He took a deep breath. "I know that this is an odd situation, but I'm a soldier and I only know one way to teach someone. So yes, if it helps you to imagine that this a very, very light version of boot camp … fine. Now it's too late to start today. So I'll see you here in the morning."

"Okay."


	4. Chapter 4

_Author's note: So I am cross posting this story from my account at Ao3. That means that the chapters will flow extremely quickly in the beginning until this one is caught up to the other one. After that I will slow it down to one update every two or three days. _

* * *

**February 2179, ****_The Argo_**

The lieutenant was having a terrible morning. Chief Gunnery Officer Didius was ruining his life. Well that might have been a little melodramatic, but only a little. It's true that he should have gone through proper channels before changing the cannon's firing algorithms, but that would have taken _forever_ and he had gotten that 0.075% increase in precision. That was enough to save lives. It was important, damn it all. Also his code was so damn elegant, a thing of beauty really. He wouldn't have been adverse to printing it out and hanging it up in his barracks. It was that gorgeous. So that made Didius' revenge that much more painful. Didius had written up the poor lieutenant and was requesting his transfer. Didius was still going to use the code, after running many very careful tests, because efficiency was what the turian military was all about. However they also had a very strict chain of command and even though the lieutenant technically outranked Didius, in this case he was the subordinate and going behind your superior's back was definitely frowned upon.

_Maybe they'll pull me out of the military. Dad would love that. I wouldn't get citizenship and probably go live in the terminus systems._

The lieutenant briefly considered this fate and he came to the immediate conclusion that it might not be such a bad thing. Even though it would mean leaving his entire life, up till now, behind; he would finally be away from the clutches of his father.

He really wanted to punch the wall, it wouldn't help anything and he'd probably only accomplish breaking his hand, but the fantasy remained. Instead he stood there at attention, rigid and perfect, while silently contemplating all of the possibilities of the upcoming meeting with Captain Victus.

"Junior Lieutenant Vakarian, come in."

* * *

This time the lieutenant did punch a wall. Transferred and a permanent blemish on his record, his new station was sure to be lots of fun too. Vakarian was assigned to the ground vehicles. His entire job was to maintain the ship's Makos. Of all the worthless and insignificant postings, the only thing more trivial would be if the captain had assigned him to the mess. The lieutenant knew that his considerable skills were completely _wasted_ with the spirits-be-damned vehicles. Of course, the worst part wasn't even his posting; he was pulled off any ground team for the next _month._ **"If you can't learn to work as a unit and follow orders, then how am I supposed to trust other soldiers' lives to you?"** Vakarian knew his Captain was right, he wasn't such a bad turian that he didn't understand. He stared at the small dent his fist at left in the wall and considering leaving another one.

"Just because you're having a bad day, doesn't mean you have to take it out on the ship." The voice was a soft purr and Vakarian would be a damned liar if he didn't admit that the owner wasn't one of the most attractive females he had seen.

"Cecilia" He didn't want to turn his face and look at her quite yet; as he was pretty sure she had started their old game. "Shouldn't you be in engineering?"

Cecilia Modius smirked behind his back and leaned her body so she wasn't touching him, but he would be able to feel her closeness. "Oh, they let me have a short day. I solved a particularly hairy problem within the exhaust manifolds and they told me that my solution was ingenious. There might even be a promotion in it for me." She breathed into his ear.

Oh yes, they were definitely playing the old game.

"How nice for you." Vakarian just barely bit back the growl that was threatening to rip itself from his throat.

"So, Garrus, how was your day? Wrestle any new algorithms lately?" She was starting to move her hands to hover around to his front, still taking the care to not so much as brush his uniform.

Garrus spun around, grabbed her wrists, and shoved her back. "I am not playing this stupid fucking game, Lia. Not right now!"

Cecilia pouted at this new turn of events.

"You and everyone on this spirits blessed boat know how my day went." His voice was quickly rising to near shouting levels and he had moved to pacing the small room. "Didius finally showed his colors as an acrocanth's cloaca and I'm stuck scrubbing out the damn Makos probably until my damned commission is through! The worst part, oh you're going love this bit, the damn fool is still going to use my damn code and probably take all of the credit. So," He stopped in front of the female and shoved his face in hers and growled. "You tell me. How was my day?"

Cecilia stood between a wall and a clearly irate turian and decided that this was not a good place to be. So she grabbed and lifted his arm, smoothly stepped underneath it, slammed her fist into the back of his sensitive waist, grabbed his shoulder and dropped the now off-balance turian to the ground. Cecilia then skipped out of the range of his arms.

"If you are quite done posturing and feeling sorry for yourself, you can get revenge for that little maneuver on the mat in fifteen minutes." She walked to the door and stopped to look at prone and growling male.

"For the record, the whole ship didn't know about what happened to you today. Sometimes 'how was your day' just means 'how was your day'. Not everything is about you, Garrus Vakarian."

* * *

**June, 2169 - Mindoir**

Charlie Nacht was going to have a great day. She knew it in her bones before she even opened her eyes. It was 0350, she wasn't sure when she had started thinking in military time, but she was positive that Ethan was to blame for it. She quietly slipped of bed careful not to disturb Grace, who had taken to spending nights in Charlie's bed. It was a little odd that she was never there when Charlie fell asleep, but she always showed up and brought along the dog, whose name according to Grace was Doggie and to everyone else it was Trace. Before Charlie started to get ready, she put her ID back in her wallet and stuck it on a shelf in her closet. That ritual complete she skipped off to the shower for her favorite ritual.

The past six months had been long and extremely exhausting, but they had also been rewarding and fantastic. She would start everyday with calisthenics, then spend the next few hours practicing at the shooting range, which was just a high mound of dirt facing the jungle. Charlie was incredibly proud at how well she was doing with that. She was very good with pistols, damn good with shotguns, and extremely poor with sniper rifles. Well that's not fair, she wasn't just poor with rifles she was truly abysmal. Usually she could hit the target or, at least, get close to it. Charlie had no idea what she was doing wrong. It should have just been a matter of getting the angles right, math essentially and she was very good at math. Just not this kind of math, her personal opinion was that it was too close to her least favorite subject; trigonometry.

So maybe firearms weren't quite for her, but she did know something that was. She positively excelled at hand-to-hand combat. She had skipped to the head of the class in that subject. Charlie really wished that Ethan would start giving out letter grades for the tri-weekly sessions where about fifty of the colonists would turn out to watch the security team spar. It was such a power trip to make someone tap out. She didn't win every bout, but every week she was putting out a better performance. If there was any official ranking she would have been about halfway up the column, which was pretty good considering she only had six months of training. That first day of training, Ethan was impressed that Charlie already knew how to fall. Learning how to fall without hurting yourself is an important, if not the most important, basic skill. She also already knew how to use someone's weight against them and, of course, she knew how to get someone on the ground. Charlie thanked all of the hard lessons she learned while playing rugby and was pleasantly surprised that she remembered most of it. Though she didn't know how to properly throw a punch or how to dodge or any of the fancy legwork Ethan had to show her; her previous training gave her a solid start.

With the exception of Charlie, the security team was all male; unsurprisingly they were mostly young men with cocky attitudes and too much testosterone. A few of them had protested Charlie's addition to the team, but she had just as much cockiness as the best of them. It also hadn't hurt that she had the height, reach, and fair amount of flexibility. She would jeer and mock them when she beat them and snark and slap them on the back when they beat her. It was really quite similar to her old rugby days, as long as she laughed at their jokes and drank their smuggled booze they were all good friends.

The smuggled booze was actually a sore point with her. Apparently she wasn't allowed to drink until she was eighteen here. She had told them she was sixteen, which was close enough to the truth, but had unfortunately also told them her birthday was March 10, which was true. This meant that Charlie still had nine months to go before she could "legally" drink alcohol. This didn't really stop her though, it just meant that she had to sneak off with the rest of the teenagers; not that much different from Earth. However, what was different was that kids she drank with were, well they were, kids. There was one boy in particular who just could not take a hint. Charlie had even threatened to kick his ass, but apparently that had appealed to him. Cody Soldner was a pain in her ass. Sure he was tall and good looking, but he just felt like a child to her. It was actually really disturbing whenever he would try and slip his arm around her. Charlie was used to grown up men and in her mind she was a grown up woman. It was actually a little concerning that the only men she would even consider being with were, at least ten years older than the body she currently possessed. Not that it really mattered though; she was not looking for a man to replace Justin.

All of that aside though; today was going to be a great day. She had finished her shower and was rechecking her already packed backpack. Today Ethan was taking her out in the Hoover. The Hoover was the name of the only shuttle the colonists had. It was beaten up and generally filthy, but to Charlie it was beautiful. Charlie first saw the Hoover during her second week on Mindoir. It was small, with only room enough for a pilot and two, maybe three, additional people. Ian Rodriguez was the sole engineer on Mindoir, so when he found Charlie poking around inside of it reverently stroking the control panel, he immediately demanded that Ethan let him borrow her a few nights a week as an assistant. Charlie was not a natural engineer, but she did throw herself whole-heartedly at the job. She was always trying to coax Ian into telling her more about technology, in general. But he could be surprisingly tight-lipped about some things. She had found out that faster-than-light travel existed, which wasn't exactly surprising at all, but that it wasn't warp field technology. That question had Ian laughing so hard he fell out of the shuttle. Charlie had not been amused.

Actually there was a lot that she felt people weren't telling her. She had to ask the questions in a round a bout way to start with, because she was supposed to know most of this stuff already. Apparently there had been some war somewhere, everyone only referred to it as "the war" which was unsurprisingly not very helpful, with some aggressors that were pretty much the equivalent of space Nazis. Charlie didn't really care much anyways; war apparently hadn't changed at all in 157 years. There were the good guys and the bad guys; and who was who only depended on what side you were on. As best as she could gather, these colonists came to Mindoir after getting fed up that their government decided to make friends with the aggressors. Charlie thought that was a little petty, though she would never say it; after all they were all human and wars end.

However these conversations were too few and far between for Charlie's taste. Most of the adults on Mindoir did not seem to trust her. The security team did, but they were only 20 people out of the couple hundred residents. Well the kids also liked her. After Charlie convinced Trent Newman to steal, er "borrow", his father's guitar; they decided that they liked her even more. She was not a natural musician, she couldn't write a song to save her life and her voice was a little too deep to pull off beautiful. However, Justin had been an excellent musician and had taught her well for the four years they were together. So she introduced the Mindoir youth to punk and her favorite rock from her childhood. Mostly it was Weezer, POTUSOA, Cake, and a little Green Day; however there were also some oldies thrown in there. Charlie wasn't so disillusioned that she thought she was revitalizing rock, but the kids seemed to like it and they brought her more sheet music that they found buried in old archives. If it wasn't for the really strange guitar, it was guitar-shaped but it had a built in amplifier and could be played as a bass, electric guitar, or acoustic guitar, Charlie would have felt like she was back like she was back on Earth.

At 0400, Charlie walked out in the living room to find Ethan, when she couldn't find him she decided that he must have left already, so she hustled out to the armory. She could see the light on inside the shack and walked in to find Ethan checking his rifle.

"Sorry I'm late. I must have just missed you." She offered him a smile and got a grunt as a response.

"Do you need me to grab anything while we're in here."

"Take this." Ethan handed her a pistol and her favorite shotgun. Then he started to deposit a large amount of ammo into a sack.

"What's going on? I thought you said this was just going to be a scouting mission and we probably weren't even getting out of the Hoover."

"Mission parameters have changed."

"The hell does that mean?"

Ethan turned and looked at Charlie for the first time that day. "Your boy's gone missing."

Charlie scrunched up her face and shook her head. "My boy? … Cody? What did that _schlemiel_ do this time?"

"We're not sure, but he's definitely gone." Ethan gave Charlie a sympathetic look. "Jess is gone too."

"Well they probably went off, like a couple idiots, to drink and fuck in the jungle."

"Yeah that's what I'm thinking too. They say anything to you?"

Charlie shook her head.

"Alright well, it's you and me then. We're going to follow them and hopefully drag them back with no complications." Ethan stepped past Charlie who had finished attaching the pistol to her left leg and had her shotgun attached to her right. She already had her combat knife in a sheath strapped to the small of her back. Ethan looked down with a disapproving glare at the shotgun.

"Look I know you don't like it there, but it's perfect for quick draw purposes. And I would like to point out that shotguns aren't precision weapons, so the only time I'm going to need it is for quick draw purposes."

"Fine, but I want this rescue to end without us taking a single shot. Remember that. If we see something big and mean out there, we go around it."

"You got it, boss." Charlie gave what she thought was a dazzling smile, but was actually closer to an evil grin and she grabbed her machete off the wall.

The trek in the jungle was fairly routine by now. Ethan had started taking Charlie out on his patrol, her second month on Mindoir. They would walk out somewhere between a half a mile and a whole mile, Ethan changed it each time to keep from forming a trail, and circle the colony. Ethan taught Charlie how to watch for dangerous animals and make sure none of them claimed any territory too near to the colony. Most of the indigenous life on Mindoir preferred to be close to water and the colony was positioned on the high piece of land and was five miles from the closest water source, so most of the species they had to worry about were insects, snakes, and small lizards. However, occasionally something large would make its home nearby. There was the toornak, the boar thing Charlie had met the first day, the occasional rause, which looked like a 7 foot tall, scaled, and featherless ostrich. They would have been fine, if they weren't so aggressively territorial. The worst Charlie had witnessed were the raptors, oh they weren't called raptors, but after Charlie started calling them that the name stuck. She really hated them. They looked almost exactly the damn raptors from Jurassic Park, which was extremely unnerving the first time she saw them. The main difference was that the tallest of them were only 5 feet tall and they are scavengers. They were vicious though and hunted in packs of five to six members. The trick was to focus on one of them, mortally wound it, the rest of them would usually turn on their brethren, and it was easy to pick them off one at a time after that. God forbid they ever get intelligent.

The trail Cody and Jess left was easy enough to follow, as they picked their way the dense foliage. Ethan held up a closed fist and Charlie immediately stopped and waited for him to motion her closer.

"What do you see?"

Charlie crouched down to the floor and studied it for a minute before answering. "Two tracks, one male and one female. They appear to be heading north-north-east."

"Good. Where do you think their destination is?"

"_Oy gevalt_, they're heading for the Stevens." She spoke in a harsh whisper after a moment.

"I agree. This could turn ugly."

Ethan really didn't need to add the last sentence. The Stevens was an off-shoot of a massive river and was given that name after Roger Stevens was killed there during the first year of the colony. Since then the Stevens had been officially off limits and thus Charlie had never been there. They picked up the pace as they continued to follow the trail.

After about 20 minutes, Charlie stopped Ethan. "I think they were followed." Ethan followed where Charlotte was pointing.

Ethan grunted an affirmative. "Raptors."

Charlie would have been more pleased at her discovery, if it hadn't meant that there were raptors to deal with.

"Raptors won't go near the water though, they're not that dumb."

With that comment Ethan set off again, this time running as fast as it was safe to travel in the dense jungle. When Charlie could hear the running water, Ethan slowed down and gave her the sign for 'weapons out' and 'caution'. Drawing and unfolding her shotgun she followed Ethan's lead. Charlotte sighed with relief when she realized that the raptor tracks had veered off to the east and had apparently abandoned their quarry. Then she realized that they did that, because she and Ethan were heading towards something bigger and scarier.

Charlie could tell that there was a clearing up ahead, but couldn't quite see it through the brush. There were a quite a few tracks to be seen here and something large and low to the ground had recently moved through the brush, as a swath of plants were pushed down in a trail. There were also some disconcerting scratches on the trees that told the tale of something very tall. Ethan's hand signals told her to stay low and continue following the trail, he was going to go off to the east and get a better view. Ethan's back silently receded to the right of her and she was struck as being extremely jealous of his ability to move so quietly. Charlie hadn't quite mastered that talent yet.

When she neared the tree line she found Jess. Jess was lazily swinging in a hammock tied up between the trees with a few empty glass bottles littering the ground under it. The girl was, of course, fast asleep, as it was only about 0600. Charlie holstered her shotgun, stepped to the hammock, and placed one hand over Jess's mouth and raised the other hand's finger to her own lips. Jess woke up with a start and began to panic until she saw Charlie.

"Where's Cody?" Charlie whispered close to Jess' face.

Jess shrugged. Charlie let the girl go, but firmly motioned for her to stay put and be quiet. Thankfully the girl complied and Charlie scanned the beach for Cody. The term beach was rather generous for what Charlie was looking at, riverbank would have been more appropriate. The Stevens was rather wide, Charlie could see the other side, but she wasn't positive how far it was away a 100 feet maybe, quite possibly more. The water was rather slow moving and there was a bit of debris floating in it. There was also one long log floating alongside the bank. Charlie still couldn't see Cody so she crept a little further out, but still inside the brush. She gave the shoreline another sweeping glance and noticed that the log wasn't moving. It was in the same position and apparently defying the current. It didn't take her too long to realize that the "log" was definitely alive. She didn't know what it was, but it had to be, at least 15 feet long, based on what little of it was breaking the surface.

_I couldn't have left the gators back in Florida? _

Charlie was still focused on the creature that was keeping close the shore, when she heard a yell and Cody came crashing out of the jungle a little ways down the shore from the east. A few seconds later he was followed by four raptors. Two shots rang out and one the animals fell, but instead of turning on their brother the creatures were focused on the screaming prey. Cody was leading them right to her. When they got in range, Charlie pulled her pistol and aimed for the one closest to Cody. The first shot hit the raptors tail, the second went wide, but the last two hit the beast's head and throat.

Two more shots rang out and they were down to one raptor. The last one seemed to realize that Charlie was the real threat and leapt at her. She went down with the ball of hate and teeth clinging to her chest. It lunged at her throat and she raised her left arm to intercept its mouth. Her canvas jacket was absolutely useless against the teeth. As it sunk into her flesh, she felt the teeth connect with the bone. Charlie screamed, but not with fear as she did the first day on Mindoir. She screamed with fury, at the reptile who had the audacity to try and eat her. Her right hand reached for her shotgun on her leg, while she brought her left leg up to her chest. With a guttural yell kicked the creature up, raised her shotgun to its chest and pulled the trigger.

The raptor was quite dead as she removed her arm from its mouth and stood back up. Cody had stopped running and was now slowly walking backwards away from the trees, as if he was afraid of another attack. Jess was mercifully silent in the hammock, though her eyes were silently screaming. The adrenaline was starting subside as Charlie was suddenly well aware of exactly how much pain the bite had left her in. Her left arm was covered in blood; most of it was hers, though the blood covering the rest of her clothes was not.

A sudden movement and a scream snapped her attention back to the shore. The "log" creature had made its move and had Cody latched in its massive jaws. The creature was definitely not a gator, though its tactics appeared to be similar. The head was triangular, like a salamander, and was filled hundreds of razor-sharp teeth. The rest of its body was layered with close fitting dark grey plates.

Without much thought for her own life, Charlie tore off towards the creature. She dimly heard the two rifle shots, but her ears were filled with the gurgling screams tearing out of Cody's throat. Charlie thought she may have heard Ethan shout something from behind her, but she disregarded that thought. She had to save Cody. She wasn't going to watch him die. They were going to go home, she was going to call him a damn fool, and as penance he was going to corroborate her heroic rescue story. Cody wasn't supposed to die, that's not how his story ends.

Charlie reached the creature and realized that she didn't know where to shoot. So she jumped on its snout, put the shotgun flush with one of its eyes and pulled the trigger. Her only thought as she pulled was something akin to, "This is either really stupid or really smart."

It turned out be a little of both. The creature was definitely dead, so that was good, but the angle she was laying on its face meant that when it fell it threw her to the ground and landed Charlie squarely on her already injured arm. With a very anguished moan she pulled herself up and staggered to the creature. Ethan was running at her. Charlie was trying to get its mouth open, when Ethan got there and stopped her.

"Charlie. Stop." He grabbed her hands.

"What do you mean stop? I saved him. We have to … get him out of there."

"I'll get him out, but you need to go sit down. Keep an eye on Jess, okay?" Ethan was talking so low it was hard for Charlie to hear him over Cody's gurgling screams.

"I can help you! He's going to die if we don't stop arguing." Why was Ethan being such an idiot? If they didn't pull Cody out _right now_ and start applying some medi-gel it was all over.

"**I gave you an order soldier.**" The command in Ethan's voice had Charlie staggering back to the hammock before she realized what she was doing.

Charlie picked up her pistol out of the mud where it had fallen during her earlier fight with the raptor and slid it back into her holster. Cody's screams had changed now and she could have sworn that she could hear her own name echoing in the cries. The sound sent chills down her spine and almost made her turn back, but Ethan's orders kept her marching back to Jess. Jess was visibly shaking and crying softly. Charlie sat down heavily next to her in the hammock.

"How is he?"

Charlie gave a small shrug, "I don't know, but if we can still hear him screaming then, at least, we know he's still alive." Cody's screams were definitely getting louder and now she was sure she could make out her own name in between sickening gurgles.

"Charlie, I don't hear any screaming."

* * *

Ian and the Hoover came to pick them up shortly. When Ethan came over to collect the two girls, Jess was trying to put pressure on Charlie's arm that was still pumping blood and Charlie was just sitting there both unaware of Jess's efforts and her own violent shaking. She was still lost to the screams. Ethan tried to rouse the girl, but soon gave up and threw her over his shoulder and carried her to the shuttle. On the way back to the colony Charlie lost consciousness.

When she woke up she was in the hospital bed back at the Wallis' house. She thought her arm should hurt more, but it was just a dull ache. When she looked at the previously ruined left arm it was wrapped with gauze and there were three thick black circles connected with wires wrapped around the bandage.

"Good you're awake." Dr. Wallis noticed the device that had captured the attention of her patient. "That's a bone knitter. I'm not sure you've ever seen one of those in action before. It'll need to stay on another hour, at the least. So try not to move around."

Charlie slowly nodded her head.

After an unknown amount of time, Charlie asked. "How long was I asleep?"

"Most of the day, there was a nicked artery and you lost a fair amount of blood."

After a moment, Charlie whispered. "Is Cody alone?"

The doctor wasn't sure how to respond to this question. "Charlie, Cody's dead."

Charlie nodded her head. "But is he alone?"

"Yes, we're making preparations for a burial, but it probably won't be until tomorrow."

"Will you let me know when I can leave and can I have any candles?"

After Dr. Wallis removed the bone knitter and Charlie got redressed, she was led to the chilled supply closet in the back of the house. Debbie found some candles though she had no idea why Charlie wanted them. They were scented candles and had conflicting odors; Charlie pondered if this would be offensive to the dead, but realized that it didn't actually matter. As she arranged the candles around a spot on the floor, it dawned on Debbie what the girl was about to do.

"Honey, you can't stay here."

"A body must never be left alone it's disrespectful to person who once lived there." She whispered as she lit the candles.

Debbie was at a loss. She didn't know anything about Jewish customs, but, like everything with Charlie, if the girl said or did anything odd it was a fair bet to blame her religion. However, this was too far. What was the girl going to all night? What were the candles for?

The last question was answered by Charlie turning off the light and sitting down on the floor.

"I really don't understand."

"I'm going to be his _shomerim_. It's like I'm his guard until he's laid to rest. I can't really explain it. It is tradition and I really shouldn't be talking right now."

Debbie was truly at a loss, but she could tell that this was important to Charlie. So she left her alone. When Ethan came home that evening, she informed him of Charlie's silent watch over Cody. He also didn't understand, but like his wife he understood that everyone's mourning period was different. Ethan tried to bring Charlie some dinner, a blanket, and a coat. She politely declined the meal, stating that it mocked the dead, but took the rest.

Charlie spent the long night in the room. She didn't hear his screams, but she knew they weren't gone forever. She would hear them again when she closed her eyes. That thought kept Charlie wide awake. She was grateful too that the black plastic sheet hid Cody's body. Charlie did not want to see what the monster had done to him. She spent the night in silence, but in her head she mutely replayed the scene on the beach over and over counting every mistake she had made that morning. Every mistake was one, she promised Cody, that she would never make again.


	5. Chapter 5

The funeral came and passed rather uneventfully. Charlie had buried people before. She had been to her mother's funeral as a young child and her bubbe had passed on a few years ago, but none of them felt as empty as Cody's did. Maybe it was the lack of Rabbi Applebaum or maybe it was that he was replaced by the loud preacher Rev. Stilton who was going on and on about sin and redemption. It felt so out of place and insulting. It's not like she had been Cody's biggest fan, but his main flaw was that he liked her too much and he deserved more respect than this. This music was nice though, kind of unusual compared to Jewish funerals, but it was still nice. Even though it would have been grossly inappropriate, her hands ached for prayer book to offer Cody peace. It was the comfort of tradition that kept Charlie going in this future. That even though everything may have changed, she still had the traditions of her people to keep her sane.

Sometime after the service Charlie asked Deborah for some lessons in basic first aid. The days seemed to move more quickly now. Like the universe was rushing them towards some event and couldn't be bothered to wait for the hands of the clock to finish their silent march. Charlie took on more and more responsibilities. She had firearms practice, which she was getting much better at, though her rifle training was still subpar. Jungle patrols with Ethan were still regular and he let her take the lead more often than not. Charlie was still excelling in hand-to-hand combat and eventually worked her way to just under Ethan in the imaginary rankings. One day she actually pinned him and he tapped out, but she was pretty sure that he could have broken her hold if he really wanted to. First aid training was slow going, but eventually she learned the basics of simple injuries. Unsurprisingly most of the instructions included pour massive amounts of medi-gel on the wound and pray.

Ian had pretty much run out of things to teach Charlotte about the Hoover, without her earning a engineering degree first. So instead he started teaching her things like how to break security systems, encrypting methods, decrypting methods, and other odd bits. She loved it. Charlie loved it more than sparring. This was a task she could really sink her teeth into. To say that Ian was impressed with her knack for writing complex algorithms would be putting it mildly; if he didn't know better he would have sworn that Charlie had a degree in mathematics. Charlie was happy to have something that she didn't start out woefully ignorant about. There might be quite a few more branches of math then when she started studying, but the theorems she knew stayed the same. The method might change, but logic was eternal.

Thus her days passed each one came bearing new challenges to lie at her feet and she welcomed them all. Charlie's nights stayed the same, as well. Each night started with her clutching her ID, closing her eyes, and waiting for Cody's scream to lull her to sleep. Each morning she was greeted by a smiling face full of brown curls and bright eyes.

* * *

**January 2170, ****_The Argo_**

Lieutenant Garrus Vakarian was not in a good mood. Now just because, dear reader, you have only seen him in bad moods, does not mean that he doesn't have a good day. The past few months Garrus had been in a wonderful mood. The best of moods, in fact; the kind of elation that can only come from getting regularly laid. Cecilia Modius was a little minx between the sheets. Garrus and Cecilia had known each other since boot camp and had played the game for such a long time that Garrus had been starting to wonder if it was only a game to Cecilia. Cecilia had happily proven him wrong. It wasn't just the sex, though that definitely helped, it was Cecilia. She was a worse turian than even Garrus. Everything was a joke or a game to her; there wasn't an ounce of stoicism beneath her plates. To Vakarian there was nothing more attractive. His father would hate her. Not just because of her mentality, though that probably wouldn't help, it was her lack of colony markings. Cecilia Modius was a bare-faced turian. Garrus didn't care about that though. If anything it made her more appealing, because it meant she was a blank canvas for his own Vakarian blue. It wasn't like he gave a salarian's cloaca, about moving up in social rankings. So he found himself stalking the corridor heading towards his station, with Cecilia Modius' bite marks still tender under his armor. Not even his reminder of the last night's encounter with his beautiful turian female could help his mood though.

This time the cause of his ire was not directed at the Gunnery Officer, it was directed at Captain Victus. It might help if I explained the situation. Last week there had been a batarian attack on the asari cruise liner, _Malindra_. The Malindra was on its maiden voyage and had been on the long trip to Ilium when the attack came. The asari government was furious, to say the least, and no one had any answers as to what could provoke the batarians to attack such a prominent target. Ilium was a trade hub and brought the batarian government not inconsiderable profits. However, Garrus was more concerned with the "how" the batarians had managed to take over a ship of a thousand asari, not the "why". Asari are well known for their biotic prowess and no one in their right mind would attack such a target, let alone board the ship and take prisoners.

However, that is exactly what the batarians did. The _Argo_ received the distress signal, while on their patrol through the Attican Traverse, and was among the first to arrive at the Malindra. Garrus would never forget the carnage they found within. Most of the bodies were the few non-asari that had been on board. The boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, and wives; the picture that was painted was grim. The bodies were left where they fell and the halls were painted in blue, red, purple, and green. The weapons that were used against the batarians were mostly make-shift arms. A piece of pipe, a decorative sword, or a broken chair leg; there were very few actual firearms to be seen. It wasn't surprising that the guests weren't allowed guns, what was surprising was that the armory was untouched. Garrus' squad had reached the security station and found only a couple of bodies there, a human and a turian. It was obvious that they were attempting to hack the door control when they were killed. Garrus had to move the human female away from the door before they could open it and he saw that her hand was still on her omni-tool that was running a very basic hacking protocol. The woman had almost made it, the thought brought bile to his throat. The armory, itself, was pristine. Clearly no one had been in there. The stacks of firearms seemed to mock the dead passengers.

As the teams steadily made their way through the ship there was a growing trend and that was the lack of asari. They only counted 24 dead asari, which was staggering compared to the 245 other dead species on board. Somehow the batarians must have incapacitated the asari before taking the ship. That was both worrisome and strange. As far as anyone knew, there was not a drug available that solely targeted the asari, without causing death, and ignored the other levo-amino species. In the end, the ship left them with more questions than answers and the hierarchy informed the Argo that its new mission was to hunt down the batarian ships responsible for the massacre.

However, this was still not the reason Lieutenant Garrus Vakarian marched into the cargo hold and kicked the Mako's tread. You see, after they were given the new mission, Garrus and the rest of the crew were ready and eager to send the batarian bastards back to whatever spirits hollow world they crawled up from; but that's not exactly what happened. It appeared that after the successful attack on the Malindra, the batarians had scattered and were now attacking every far-flung colony that bordered the Terminus Systems. The Argo always seemed to be one step behind them. The one time that they had gotten close enough to catch up with one of the ships; it had made a jump through an Alliance controlled relay. Now the Argo was waiting for permission to follow it through. That is why Garrus Vakarian was in a bad mood. They had them in their sights; all they needed to do was go after them, but the stupid bureaucracy was preventing them. At best they were stopping the Argo from seeking vengeance for all of the lives already lost, at worst they were keeping them from saving innocent lives; and that was far too much for Garrus to take. So he had made a trip up to see the Captain and told him as much. Even though Victus agreed with Garrus, he couldn't admit it to the lieutenant and instead ordered him back to his station.

"All hands brace for relay jump, in 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1."

As Garrus steadied himself against the Mako he let a cold grin spread across his face and hoped he would get to lead a ground team.

* * *

Charlie could feel the sweat starting to trickle into her eyes, she really wanted to rub them, but her hands were currently very occupied.

_Slip the pin in. Reattach the barrel. And slip the slide back on … shit shit where's the slide. _

She fumbled around the table, wasting precious seconds searching for the slide.

_Got it … and it's attached … reload and _

"Time!"

She raised the corner of the blindfold and peeked at Ethan, who was slowing shaking his head and looking at his watch.

"That bad, huh? Well I mean I guess I can't be good at everything."

Ethan laughed at her, "Actually it wasn't bad, you definitely still need practice. I mean I can't believe you lost the slide, but it's a fully functioning gun so that's an improvement."

"Laugh it up, big guy. A student is only as good as their teacher and", she gave Ethan an unimpressed once over, "this is all I have to work with."

"I know you well enough to avoid that bait."

"Oh come on, Ethan. You know that I crave our banter." Charlie gave him a half smile. "Well fine. Was the time good enough for that story you've been promising me? I seem to recall that we had a deal."

Ethan gave her an exasperated sigh, "Fine. Tonight."

Charlie pulled the half-smile into a full blown grin. A few months ago, after weeks of nagging, Ethan had told her that he would give her the colony's back story when she could field strip her handgun blindfolded. Of course, he was mostly joking about it and had been concerned when Charlie offered him a hand and called it a deal. Ethan was a man of his word though and a deal was a deal.

"So what do you have this afternoon?"

"Actually I'm free. I thought I might steal, er I mean borrow, Ian's tablet and work on some hack-, I mean programs. Just normal programs … that do … things."

"Programming things, I take it?"

"Well obviously." She flashed him the most innocent smile she had in her arsenal, however it fell decidedly short of its mark.

"Uh huh", Only Ethan's eyes betrayed his amusement. "Well as fun and wholesome as that sounds, why don't you take the rest of the day off? Everyone else is. Go out, eat too much food, and bribe James into letting you get drunk on his outpost."

Charlie rested her hand on her chest and opened her mouth with feigned shock, "Ethan Wallis what kind of a girl do you think I am? Cavorting with drunkards, really, I am a lady."

He shook his head at her, reached over and pulled the 'lady's' blindfold the rest of the way off her face. "Alright, alright I'll pretend I don't know anything, as usual. However you should really take some time off."

"Is that an order?"

"If I ordered you to do it, I doubt you actually would." Ethan left a giggling Charlie in the room.

Charlie really was going to go have fun the rest of the day, but she thought she might as well take Ian's tablet just in case she got bored. That tablet was Charlie's favorite toy, I mean tool. It had loads of programs and fantastic software available for her to write her own. Also it could wirelessly connect to pretty much any system, provided she could hack it. It was Charlie's favorite proof of the future; if only they had the internet it would have been golden. The most delightful part of the future was how easy software writing had become. Well easy was the wrong word, but it was more elegant, readable, and intuitive, than she remembered.

Charlie had just settled down in her favorite spot nestled in the back of the Hoover and was fixing some typos in her current program, when she heard the sirens. She folded the tablet up and slipped it her pocket before running back to the armory. She had only heard the alarms twice before. The first time, there had been a fire in the corn field. Thankfully they had gotten that under control before too much damage had been done. The second time was during the slaughtering the pigs, Charlie had decided that trying to keep kosher was insane on a planet that's main source of protein was pork; anyways the smell of blood had encouraged a small group of raptors to brazenly attack the barn. They had fended of the attack without much bloodshed. Both of those times, though Charlie had known what was going on before the sirens even started. This time she was caught flat-footed.

Charlie was almost out of the rows of houses when she saw the ships. They reminded her of the Hoover, except they were each about three times the size of the old shuttle and there were four of them. Where the Hoover reminded her of a hovering brick, these had rounded edges and they were bright red. There were some markings on them, as well, but she didn't have time to study them. Charlie was glad that they were landing behind her instead of coming between her and the armory.

A hand roughly grabbed her arm before she could start running again.

"Charlie you need to get Grace and leave." Ethan was shouting over the noise of the vehicles.

"No, I can stay here and help." She waved an arm in the direction of the ships. "Who are they?"

"Batarian slavers. You are going to get Grace and stay in the jungle. Trust me." His eyes held Charlie's and she could feel the fear edging his voice underneath the commanding tone.

"What about Debbie?"

"Everyone knows their job. This is yours. I know you know what the batarians are capable of and I won't have Grace find out."

"What do you mean I know? I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'll do it."

Ethan gave Charlie a confused look and looked like he was going to ask something, but he turned the look into relief when she agreed to his request.

"Keep your head down, move quickly, and check your corners."

Charlie nodded her head, changed directions, and bolted for the house; by the time she got to the door she heard the first gunshots.

"Grace! **Grace!**" Charlie bolted for her room first to grab her always ready backpack. By the time she had it secure, Grace and Debbie had found her.

"You coming too?" Charlie asked the woman, who was dressed in a similar fashion to herself. Charlie was wearing her usual black shirt, cargo pants, boots, and canvas jacket.

"Of course."

"Good," Charlie gave her a tightlipped smile. "We gotta move. We're going to make a stop at the armory on our way. I don't think they knew where it was, because they set down on the opposite side of the colony."

Debbie just nodded her head and let Charlie take the lead. It was a strange sensation to actually be in charge and Charlie realized that she hated it. Ethan or Ian or, hell, even Debbie was supposed to be in charge. Charlie didn't have the luxury of time to ponder what batarians were, but she sure knew what slavers were; and if Debbie or Grace captured or, God forbid, killed the blame rested solely on her shoulders.

By the time they were out the door the gunshots painfully close.

_Sounds like a full-auto. Assault rifle?_

_Probably, be glad it's not something with more accuracy._

Charlie followed Ethan's careful instructions on their way between the houses. Debbie was holding Grace, who was being uncharacteristically silent. They stayed low and tight against the houses, when they would reach a corner Charlie would carefully lean out and check for hostiles, before signaling for them to run to the next cover. Her hands itched for a gun, but they were all locked up in the armory. The sounds of gunfire and screams were painfully loud and once she could hear both of those noises coming from inside the house they were pressed against. There was nothing she could do though so they avoided the windows and kept moving.

The last corner, before the dash across the small field to the barracks was the first obstacle they came to. Charlie could see the shadow of a man standing just to the left of the corner, she could also hear a woman crying, the unmistakable sounds of fists meeting flesh, and she could hear the laughter. It was a deep bass laughter and Charlie wasn't sure she had ever heard a voice quite that low. Charlie's blood boiled to rip the throat out of whomever's voice that chuckle belonged to. However, Ethan's lessons forced her to stay calm and keep her head. She glanced back at Debbie who was shaking, but staying silent. After signaling the woman to stay back, Charlie lowered herself to the ground and belly crawled to the corner to appraise the situation.

There was definitely a man standing at the corner, but his back was to her as he leaned against the wall and watched the other one. The other man was beating a woman who was lying on the ground. It was that bastard with the rumbling laughter that churned her stomach. He was treating the woman like she was a toy; a kick to the ribs while she down, then a jerk of her hair to force her to stand, and then slap to the face to force her back down again. Biting her tongue to prevent the stream of expletives that was threatening to slip her lips, Charlie carefully reversed her way back to Debbie.

_Alright we need a plan. _

_Right what do we have?_

_We have a combat knife. The problem is that they are wearing full armor. _

_Where did Ethan say that armor is weakest?_

_Armpits, back of the knees, back of the elbows, and the throat._

_Ok, so you slit the first one's throat. He's about your height and you'll have the jump on him. What about the other one?_

_I don't know. I don't have a gun and I can't risk him killing the girl._

_You don't have a gun, but the first guy does. _

_Good point._

With a tentative plan in hand, she reached Debbie and silently informed her of the situation. She motioned for her to stay down, then raised herself up to a crouch. There is a huge difference between knowing that you have to kill someone and then actually doing it. There are no save files in real life; and movies and games cannot prepare you for the sensation of adrenaline flooding your system, your palms sweating with apprehension making the blade's handle stick to your flesh, and your mind constantly pouring over all of the possible flaws in whatever fool plan you have dreamt up. So much could go wrong. The first man could hear her approach, maybe the armor would be thicker around the neck than she thought, or maybe there was a third man in the house watching everything. So there was a slight pause as Charlie hid behind the house with her blade drawn. The girl's scream and wretched pleading spurred her into moving; she recognized the voice, it was Jess.

Charlie smoothly stood up behind the first slaver and in one fluid motion she sliced deep into his throat. Her earlier fears of the armor being too thick meant that she sliced too deep and her knife was now wedged in his spine, so she let it stay there as he dropped. However the thick gurgling noise attracted the attention of the second slaver. As Charlie fumbled at the catch for the assault rifle, she heard a pistol being fired behind her. Debbie was firing at the slaver. Her stance was horrible and Charlie didn't have the time to wonder where the woman had gotten a gun from.

The second slaver seemed to think it was funny, as Debbie's shots either went wide or were absorbed by his shields. He casually reached down, drew his gun, and shot Jess. Charlie knew she was out of time with trying to get the rifle clear of the body, when the laughing bastard started firing at them. She grabbed Debbie's hands that clenched the gun, pointed the weapon at the slaver, and sent the remaining three rounds into his chest. It was an awkward position as the doctor was screaming and Charlie was being rather rough with her, but she didn't really have any other options. The batarian's shields flickered and he had to duck behind the back stairs to wait for them to charge. Charlie whirled Debbie around and threw the woman behind the house near Grace with an angry grunt. The fool woman almost got them killed. If Debbie had given Charlie the gun to start with, she could have handled this situation and maybe Jess would still be alive.

Charlie was livid and not thinking clearly which was why she decided to make the next foolish decision. She ripped the rifle off of the dead batarian, unfolded it, and bolted for the stairs. When she neared the stairs she jumped up on them, pointed the barrel at the slaver on the other side and unloaded the entire clip. It was overkill and she knew it, but she couldn't bring herself to care. The batarian was now a barely recognizable pile of orange flesh.

For a brief moment, Charlie indulged in the euphoria of simply being alive. She had faced down two fully-grown, armored, women-beating slavers and she had beaten them. Insane giggles were threatening to escape her throat, when she remembered that the cost was Jess' life. That sobering thought brought her completely out of her reverie and she searched the bodies for spare ammo. At least they would not need to go to the armory. With clips filling her pockets, a bloody pistol awkwardly fitted in her belt, and her knife back in its sheath; she made her way back to Debbie and Grace. Charlie was going to give that woman a piece of her mind after they got to safety.

She found Debbie lying on the ground where she left her. Debbie Wallis' chest was a blossom of red. Grace was patting her mother's face trying to wake her up. Charlie wasted no time in sinking to her knees and groping the woman's neck to find a pulse she knew wouldn't exist.

"No, no, no." Charlie's panicked whisper broke Grace's silence and the girl started crying.

Charlie looked at the little seven-year-old who had her mother's blood on her hands and listened as sirens continued to ring and the sounds of gunfire slowly faded. She scooped the child up, settled Grace on her left hip and ran for the tree line.

Charlie didn't stop running until the sounds faded away.


	6. Chapter 6

When Charlie finally stopped running she tried to set Grace down, however the girl was rather opposed to the plan. So she awkwardly slid off her backpack, working around the clinging child, and repositioned Grace to her back. She then pulled her machete out of the satchel and set to clearing a section of the jungle for a camp. Her backpack was filled with everything a single person would need for 3 or 4 days in the wilderness: A single person tent, a couple of tarps, a blanket, plenty of water and ration bars, and a small first aid kit. Charlie really did not want to set up camp, she wanted to sit by herself and let her mind dwell on the horrific events of the past 2 hours. However the crying girl took precedence and she had promised Ethan she would take care of her.

After a very long thirty minutes of wrestling with the tent with a child threatening to strangle her on her back, she eventually got Grace to sit down and drink some water. Charlie then emptied her pockets of the scavenged supplies and positioned herself at the front of the tent, with the assault rifle resting on her knees.

"I finished my water", Grace spoke from behind her. "Can I get back in your lap?"

"Sure." Charlie set the gun aside, but within arm's reach. If she was being honest with herself, she was grateful for the girl's presence. It was comforting and grounding to be needed by someone else. Grace crawled into Charlie's lap and wrapped arms around her waist.

"Can you tell me a story?" Grace asked after a while.

Charlie looked down at the six year old, she just barely managed to wrestle back the tears that were trying to form. Grace had started demanding to be told stories after Charlie had made the mistake of telling her the first one. She had been throwing an epic temper tantrum out of angry exhaustion and Debbie had the look of a mother pushed too far. So Charlie had forced the girl to sit next to her in bed and told her the tale of "The Princess Bride". Since then Charlie had recounted, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (which Grace was positive was about Charlotte), "The Lord of The Rings" (heavily abridged), "The Lion King", and every other fairytale, movie, or book she could recall. This time, however, she decided to tell a different story.

"Well, once upon a time, there were a people called the Hebrews. A long time ago, they had a wonderful land that was all theirs, but at the start of this story they were living in a strange land. The people who lived there had made them their servants. So they had to spend all of their days working in the fields and building monuments for their masters."

"Is this a good story? I want a happy story."

"Well like most stories something bad has to happen first, before the good things can happen. I don't usually give away the endings, but I promise that this one has a happy one." She leaned down to kiss the girl's forehead and continued the tale.

* * *

Once Grace had drifted off to sleep, Charlie was able to consider the day. She could feel the nagging tug at the back of mind and the old whispering voice had come back. Charlie's hands were still covered in the orange blood and as she sat there studying them the voice got louder.

_Orange blood, well that isn't right._

_True very true. Would it possibly be called inhuman?_

_I don't like what you're getting at._

_Okay well consider this, what did Ethan call the slavers?_

_Batarians?_

_Riiiiight. I think we've heard that word before._

_Well that doesn't mean anything. It was a stupid game. He could have just as easily called them andorians and you'd be telling me that I was in a Star Trek episode._

_True, but what color blood did batarians have?_

_I don't remember. Also if aliens existed, why did no one mention this to me? I mean that feels like it would have been kind of a big deal._

_Yes, you do remember and you're just being stubborn. I don't know why they wouldn't mention aliens, but don't you think they probably thought you already knew?_

_Listen I have watched, read, and played a lot of science fiction. Now we're in the future, I mean some of it had to turn out real enough. I'll admit that this is scarily accurate and maybe if I had seen four eyes I might, might mind you, believe you. But this could just be a giant coincidence. _

_I'll give you that one, but let's not forget everything else. We're on a planet in a place called the Attican Traverse, you have to remember that one. All those times in the war room looking at that damn map. _

_Shit. I'm still not convinced though. What else do you have?_

_Medi-gel._

_Nope I'm not giving you that one. It stands for Medical Gel. That's generic enough that it quite possibly came about naturally._

_How about the fancy folding guns?_

_Again that could just be a coincidence, like medi-gel._

_Well who is the manufacturer of the guns?_

_I don't know, Ethan kept his painted matte black._

_True, but the batarians didn't._

Charlie looked that the assault rifle lying beside her on the ground. Her stupid inner voice was right, she could just make out the logo. Charlie really didn't want to reach out and check, mostly because she wasn't sure she wanted to know. If this was just a game, then that would cheapen everything she had been through. Cody, Jess, and Debbie were dead; could even her sick and twisted imagination make something like this up? Her eyes sought Grace's sleeping face and stroked the girl's hair. No, there are too many details. Charlie could clearly recall the past year living with these people. The late night drinking games, the hours of sparring, every blow she had taken, the first time she glued a wound closed, the raptor's teeth shredding her arm, and a million other details. They were real memories and experiences, that can't be dreamt up. Whatever clue that gun held, no matter what, it didn't matter; this right here was real.

Charlie reached down, lifted the gun up, and studied the logo. She couldn't read the language, but didn't think she recognized the symbol. It appeared to be a stylized white sword.

_Well that wasn't informative. _

The handgun yielded more information. Charlie did not recognize the symbol, but she could read the language. "Kassa Fabrications" She almost dropped the gun on Grace and instead placed it on the ground with the logo facing down.

_Holy Shit._

* * *

The trip through the mass relay didn't take much time, as usual. After they arrived in the system a quick scan showed that a ship had recently jumped to FTL. That left the Argo to guess at which of the other two systems the ship had travelled to within the cluster. They chose the wrong system and lost a full day travelling through the cluster. This delay was taxing on the entire crew, but none more so than Garrus Vakarian. Though no one had asked his opinion, he had done his own research and also came to the conclusion that the batarians had headed for the Hemon System. After all there were two fairly large colonies one of the planets. He did not know why they travelled to the Ithaca System. There was only a single colony located there and an unmanned orbiting research platform. The Alliance had not given the Argo detailed information on the colony and seemed reluctant even to mention it. Garrus didn't know why, but a couple hundred people was not a profitable target for a massive batarian cruiser. It just didn't make sense.

"Maybe it's a secret research base?" He asked the interior of the Mako.

Whatever the batarians' reasons, they were only four hours away from the colony on Mindoir. Garrus' omni-tool pinged with an incoming message.

_V,_

_We've got 3 hours till the briefing, are you going to spend that whole time locked in the Mako pouting?_

_-M_

Garrus chuckled despite her taunt, he had been ignoring Cecilia for the past couple of days. He was also off-duty until the upcoming mission, maybe he should make it up to her. He was about to send the message when something occurred him. He reached up, unlocked the hatch, and pushed it open.

"You know it's not nice to sneak up on people when they're working."

A female face appeared in the opening to look at him, before spreading her mandibles wide in a grin. "I've been up here for ten minutes; you really need to pay attention to your surroundings. I thought snipers were supposed to be good at situational awareness."

"I guess I'll have to add shady females to my list of creatures to study the movements of. Now unless you're planning to join me down here, you need to back up so I can get out."

Cecilia landed lightly in front of him.

"Who says I'm not going to join you in here? Maybe I'll give you some tips concerning the movements of shady females."

Garrus tried to maintain the disapproving glare, but a twitch of his mandible belied his effort. "As tempted, as I'm sure you are Lia," His breath caught when Cecilia ran a talon across his waist with an evil look in her eyes. "I mean what female wouldn't want all of this." Garrus gave a weak chuckle, in an attempt to regain his confidence. He then stepped around her and pulled himself out of the vehicle, he offered her an arm to help her out.

"You are no fun," she said with a pout, before accepting the arm and pulling herself out of the Mako.

"Oh I don't know about that. There are plenty of places I can be fun in, just not ones that will get me a second reprimand."

"Sparring first or are we heading straight for the barracks?"

Garrus grabbed Cecilia's waist, pulled her close, and growled in her ear. "Sparring. My dear, I never skip the foreplay."

* * *

It was dark.

Very, very dark.

Grace was still asleep, but Charlie had managed to get her into the tent. The jungle was as silent as it was dark and that was not a good omen. Charlie was not sure if maybe it was the horrific events of the day or perhaps it was the year of training with Ethan, but something was making her very cautious. She had already cleaned both weapons, secured the pistol to her side, and was loosely holding the assault rifle in her arms; crouched on the jungle floor ready to defend against whatever dared to attack them. She was jumpy, to put it mildly. Of course there was another reason for her anxiety. It kept her attention away from the very real possibility that she was living in a computer game.

Charlie snapped her head towards the south; she thought she had heard the first rustle of leaves her ears had noticed for over an hour. The sound was getting closer now and it was definitely coming towards them. She swiveled her whole body towards the direction and let her senses tell her what was going to emerge from the brush. The noise was close to the ground, so its size was small to medium, and she could not feel any vibrations, so it was light as well. When she realized that there were multiple sources of the noise, she cursed silently. There was a herd of raptors coming towards her and she was alone. No, not alone. It was worse than that. She had Grace to look after.

The first one broke through the brush and she unloaded four three-round bursts into its body as it skidded to the ground in front of her. Two more had burst through, as well but they were running past her without any concern for the fate of their brother. That was when Charlie heard it. A deep screeching roar that chilled her skin and made her hands falter on the rifle. Charlie did not know what creature it belonged to, but she was suddenly very aware of the tremors coming from the ground. Something a lot bigger than a raptor was crashing through the jungle. Something furry and monkey shaped clawed in the back of her mind and finally spurred the woman in motion.

Charlie reached into the tent to grab a drowsy Grace, who had been rudely woken up by the gunfire. Scrambling through the underbrush she ran as fast as the terrain would permit her back towards the colony.

_follow the raptors not us/follow the raptors not us/follow the raptors not us/follow the raptors not us_

The massive creature did not hear Charlie's silent chant, as it changed direction and followed her. She knew that she could not beat it in a fair footrace, especially not with Grace wrapped around her front; so she decided to make her path as difficult to follow as she could. Charlie slipped between every narrow opening in the trees and avoided every clearing on her way back. It took more time that way, especially with the jungle being dark; but it caused the creature to fall back.

Thanking God that the creature was not an intelligent one; Charlie reached the edge of the jungle, ran across the very large vegetable garden, and towards the silent colony. She finally came to a stop around the corner of one of the identical houses; she vaguely remembered it belonging to James Frisco. Charlie was out of breath and panting as she leaned against the side of the house and kept a cautious eye on the tree line.

"Grace, I need you to help me out here," she said as she set the girl down. "I need you to watch that tree line. If you see anything come out of there or you hear anything I want you to tell me. No, don't worry I'm not leaving you alone." Charlie added as Grace's face filled with panic. "I just need a big girl to help me out while I make sure no one is here." Grace nodded her head solemnly and turned to watch the trees. The batarians had not cut the power so the lights were still on and lit up the surrounding jungle.

Charlie kept the girl in sight as she crept towards the end of the house to peer at the street. When she was about to reach the corner, she heard a noise. It sounded like an animal; it was a deep bass rumbling noise, interspersed with chirps and whistling. She had never heard such an impossible mix of harmonics, but it was on the other side of the house and she hoped it had not noticed her. Drawing a deep breath Charlie sharply turned the corner with her rifle raised and the safety off.

Charlie's eyes widen at the 7 foot tall creature in black and silver armor. Her head barely came up to his mid chest. She didn't have time to gawk as the hulking man growled at her.

"Stop or I'll shoot," she tried to put the commanding tone that Ethan used so well in her voice and was thus surprised when came out like a squeak.

The man, or whatever he was, was clearly unimpressed as he quickly reached as impossibly long arm out to move her rifle, while reaching for his own gun on his back. Charlie didn't really have time to assess this new threat, she didn't know who he was and what he was doing here, but she was damn sure she wasn't going to let him kill her or Grace. So, she stepped forward and threw all of her weight into punching his exposed armpit, she was vaguely aware that she shattered her right hand doing so. He was clearly surprised at her action as he stumbled, dropped her rifle, and grunted. Still moving she stepped behind him, kicked the back of his left knee, and forced him into a kneeling position. Simultaneously she pulled out her knife, gripped the back of his sloping helmet, and pressed the blade to his throat.

He was trying to grapple her with his free arms, so she set one foot on his leg spur, and put some weight on it. "I already slit one alien bastard's throat today, try me." She spoke in a low tone and for a wonder he actually stopped moving. Apparently she did menacing a lot better than commanding, or maybe it was just that she really meant those words.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Charlie wasn't sure if the chirrups and humming were his response or not, but either way she had no idea what it meant.

She was about to try and question him again when she heard more of the alien speech coming from in front of her. She counted six more of the armored aliens and they were all leveling weapons at Charlie. The first thing that struck her about the aliens, was that they were clearly turians. The second was that they were of varying heights and builds, Charlie seemed to remember that they all seemed to look alike in the game, but then again this was real life. It was most certainly not a game.

"I don't want to hurt him, but I need to know who you are."

There was another chorus of almost musical humming.

"I can't understand you, but you're still pointing weapons at me. If you understand me, lower them." She was spacing the words out, as if that would help convey their meaning.

A few of them lowered their weapons and it was enough to let her know that they could understand her words. However, two of them took a menacing step forward.

Charlie straightened herself and repositioned the knife, tilting her captive's head further back. "Don't think I won't do it."

Her prisoner sent a few harsh hums and chirrups and the turians stepped backwards once more and lowered their weapons.

"Good. Now I will let him go only if I'm certain I will not be harmed. I don't know how you are going to prove that, but …"

She trailed off when an seventh man joined the group and stepped to the front. He was taller than most of them and his armor was slightly different.

"No … harm." His voice was cracking and the words were difficult to make out, but she thought she could understand him. He placed a hand on his chest. "Military … aid."

Charlie could feel the tension melting out of her body. She wasn't sure if he was telling the truth, but dammit she wanted to believe him. She was just starting to let the captive go when Grace came running around the corner screaming, "HereHerehere!"

Charlie dropped the knife and let go of the turian in an instant. She scrambled past him to grab the child, who had stopped moving at the sight of the many aliens. When she had lifted the girl she saw what had sent the girl screaming. It was the creature that had been chasing them earlier and Charlie had been correct, it was massive. It stood on two legs about 20 feet off the ground and was, at least, double that in length. It's head was vaguely shaped like a crocodile and it had two long powerful arms tipped with claws. A good portion of its body was covered in heavy dark green plating, especially on its back where the plating arched to protect its spine. Oh, and it was charging straight at the two girls.

Charlie let out an unintelligible cry and blindly turned to her right to run. However, the previously captive turian was still in the process of standing up and she ran straight into him and all three of them went tumbling to the ground in a heap. In the confusion of the fall, Charlie right ankle got tangled up with the turian's and caused her leg to pull sideways, when she landed on that knee the pain caused darkness to threaten her vision.

Grace's hands clenching her face and her piercing scream in her ear, brought Charlie's mind into focus again. When she came around the turian was gone and the terrifying beast was standing over her and Grace. The group of turians on the other side of the beast had opened fire and were drawing its attention away from the prone girls. Charlie tried to stand up, but the damage to her leg made that impossible and she fell back down to the ground.

Strong hands were trying to take Grace away from her and she struggled with them, but the darkness was attempting to take her again and her strength was failing. Grace was pulled away from her and Charlie let out a pitiful sob. Then a hand and an arm came back, wrapped under her arms and across her back, and lifted her to a standing position. The beast was still roaring in fury as they hobbled around a house to take cover. The turian lowered her down as gently as he could and gave a very willingly Grace back to her. Resting against the building, Charlie looked down at her leg. It was definitely broken. The lower portion of her right leg was almost perpendicular to her body and the knee was a swollen mess of blood. Just the sight of it, almost made Charlie vomit and she probably would have if Grace wasn't in her arms.

The turian who had saved her was firing at the creature and was using the biggest sniper rifle Charlie had ever seen. The familiar double tap reminded her so much of Ethan that it calmed her. It was such an odd time to feel calm. The monster was raging in painful fury somewhere behind her, sounds of gunfire, and the pain from her leg threatening to overtake her; but just the confident retort of a sniper rifle and the soft clicks of ammo change boosted Charlie's spirit.

"Are they going to take us away like the bad men and the Egyptians?" Charlie almost didn't hear Grace's quiet query through the cacophony surrounding them.

"No, I don't think they will. They're good people. Like the Kenites."


	7. Chapter 7

Garrus Vakarian was having one of the oddest days of his short military career. When they finally made it to the Ithaca system the batarians were gone. Garrus was of the opinion that they should leave immediately to continue the chase, but instead the order was to search the human colony for survivors. The lieutenant thought this was a pointless exercise as the batarians rarely left survivors. As it turned out, Captain Victus had made the right call.

The first twenty minutes they spent on the surface of Mindoir were decidedly uneventful. However, that changed when the Garrus found himself held at gunpoint by the tallest human female he had ever seen, he honestly didn't know they came that size. He made the mistake of underestimating her and let himself get caught completely off guard; which he definitely shouldn't have since she was holding a batarian assault rifle and there was really only one way you get one of those in your possession. Her voice and appearance had also caused him to label her as non-threatening. She was wearing filthy torn clothes and her tone was a frightened squeak. So when she attacked him he was stunned, he froze up and she had him at her mercy so quickly that it was frankly embarrassing. He had never spent much time around humans, but Garrus could hear the truth in her voice when she told him that she had killed already and would do so again. She obviously had never fought a turian before, because the position of the knife was wrong. He was contemplating his counter attack and would have subdued her, but he underestimated her again and now she was threatening to break his spur. She was obviously scared of them, but not the wild sort of fear that caused one to make rash decisions. The honest kind, she was trying to talk to them and reason with them. Garrus found himself listening to her words and thought he trusted them, so he ordered his men back. He was contemplating wringing the neck of whatever idiot decided that a human translation program wasn't part of the required omni-tool data package, when Captain Victus calmed her down.

Garrus definitely understood the woman with the short black curly fringe, or what was it the humans called it? Anyways, he understood her fear when the small human came shrieking out to them. He would have probably killed everyone there, if someone had threatened his child. He shivered, thinking about his sister Solanna. True she was much older than this girl, but the thought of harm coming to her itched under his plates. The momentary pain of where she dug into his spur was forgiven, when Garrus saw the frantic love in which she clung to the child.

Of course that was when his day became truly odd. The confident woman who had moved like liquid fire and gotten the upper hand on him, _Garrus Vakarian_ sparring champion, in hand-to-hand combat, no less; had barreled into him so poorly and with such lack of grace that she cracked his spur. Though when he saw the 6 foot long head full of teeth and hate, come around the corner; he quickly and painfully pulled himself out from under her and the screaming child. He ran for cover behind a house and when he looked back he saw the woman crumple to the ground. It was foolish to run back for her, with the massive angry beast swinging its tail dangerously low to the ground. He knew that one bad hit with that tail could end him, but Garrus could not and would not let that frightened child and the brave woman with the large dangerous eyes die. So he ran back for them dodging the swinging tail as he tried to stay behind the creature. Garrus felt bile rising in the back of his throat when he saw the ruined leg and briefly wondered how she was staying conscious. The child fought him as he staggered under the woman's weight and his own fractured talon.

Garrus' favorite thing in the universe was firing his Armax Arsenal Punisher. He wasn't just good, he was well on his way to being damned good. After he deposited the females in cover, Garrus went down on one knee and lifted his sniper rifle's scope to his eye and went about bringing the creature down. The problem with the monster was that it was armored, Garrus had never seen such a heavily armored creature before and, coming from a turian who grew up on Palaven, that means quite a bit. The rest of the squad was slowly wearing it down, but there were two causalities he that he could see. He couldn't tell the extent of their injuries, but he thanked the spirits that Cecilia had not been assigned to the ground squad. It took about a minute, which can feel like forever in a fight, but eventually Garrus was able to make an impressive head shot in between the plates.

Feeling quite victorious as he removed the stifling helmet, he almost missed the small tug on his arm.

"Mister, can you help?"

Garrus looked down into the pleading eyes of the tiny human child. She was trembling and let out a small squeak at the sight of his face. Clearly, he thought, she's never seen a turian before. He glanced over at the mother. She was pale, sweating, and shivering; he knew that this was shock, but he didn't know what to do. Garrus quickly called in his location and requested a medic, as he rushed over to the woman.

_With turians you're supposed lie them down and elevate the legs. Spirits, look at her leg though._

The medic had yet to arrive so he gently shifted her from the sitting position and moved her to the grass. Her eyes fluttered open and she stared at him. Garrus didn't think it was fear, but it was definitely surprise and maybe a little panic. _Surely a grown woman has seen a turian?_ The child was kneeling on the ground hugging her mother's arm. Garrus found himself making soothing noises and stroking the girl's back.

The medic who arrived, Garrus couldn't remember his name, was definitely not his favorite male in the galaxy. He quickly took charge of the situation and was handling the woman much too roughly for Garrus' tastes. When the cloaca realized that the pair couldn't understand him, he set to making extremely xenophobic remarks regarding their heritage. However, Garrus did not completely snap until the man yanked the girl's arm away from her mother with malice.

"Get your hands off of her." Garrus' subvocals ached with rage.

"I can't do my job with this clinging pyjak in the way!" The medic snapped right back.

Garrus hated the male's tone and choice of language, but he really hated that he was right. Garrus crouched down and held a hand out to the little girl. For a wonder, the little girl took it and then scrambled up in his arms. When the medic declared the mother stable, Garrus found himself holding the clinging child as he followed him back to the shuttle.

"Can you find someone else to hold the girl? We could use you down here, Vakarian." Captain Victus asked as Garrus passed him.

"Uh sure. I mean yes, sir. Of course."

However, the little girl, Grace Talitha Wallis she had informed him, absolutely refused to go with anyone else and clung tightly to his neck when he tried to put her down.

"Nononononononono. I'm staying right here with Growlie."

Eventually Victus acquiesced, though he had chuckled loudly at the name Grace had bestowed on him.

"Well Lieutenant Growlie, I guess you better head up to the Argo."

As Garrus turned to leave, trying desperately not to earn his new name by growling at his commanding officer, Captain Victus added, "By the way, good job out here."

So maybe it was an odd day, but Garrus was sure that it had also been a good day.

* * *

**_"Are you kidding, I'm right behind you."_**

**_"Scratch one!"_**

**_"Definitely"_**

**_"No Shepard without Vakarian."_**

_Vakarian _

"Vakarian," Charlie croaked the name out loud. Her right leg felt like it was on fire and for some reason her right hand was also in pain. Actually her whole body was sore and full of aches. She wasn't sure where she was or what she was laying on, but it sure as hell was not a bed. Charlie wasn't sure she wanted to open her eyes, as she could feel the bright lights stinging through her eyelids. She felt movement to her left and then there were cold, small fingers clutching her arm.

A cautious peek through a crack in her eyelids, revealed a grinning Grace sitting by the extremely hard bed.

"Hey you." She rasped as she moved her left hand to tousle the girl's hair.

There was a gentle admonishing rumble and a chirp that was followed by a monotone voice saying, "Do not grab her too roughly, small child. This woman is still injured."

Frowning at the strange voice, Charlie looked past Grace and found the owner. Grace was perched on the lap of a very large turian wearing even larger armor. He was at once familiar and foreign to Charlie. His face followed the classic lines that he had possessed in the game, but there was more movement and life in this face. His skin tone was silver-grey, but there were little bits shimmer mixed in the plates not unlike polished granite. It wasn't like he was glowing, but when his head turned and caught the light the slight reflection made his plates look vaguely opalescent. His eyes though were different or maybe it was just that these eyes were real; and no graphics engine can give those ice-blue orbs emotion. There was one identifying mark that was exactly the same and it was the only reason that Charlie knew that this was, in fact Garrus Vakarian. The thick sweeping blue line that came up one side of his face, crossed his nose, and finished in an identical sweep down the other side.

"I apologize if Grace disturbed your rest."

Charlie's eyes, which were already fairly wide open, defied biology and opened wider.

_Garrus Vakarian, I'm talking to Garrus Vakarian._

_..._

_Well aren't you going to give me bit of wisdom wrapped up in snark?_

_I've got nothing._

"I am pleased with your recovery." Garrus scowled at the orange blur on his arm.

_Holy shit, it's an omni-tool._

"I feel I must apologize for the inadequacy of this translation program. This was the only program available and it is not conveying my meaning well."

"It's alright. I'm just glad I don't have to hold a knife to your throat to talk anymore." Her weak chuckle, brought her to a coughing fit. Though she was rewarded with a flare of his mandibles, which she really hoped was a smile even though it looked terrifying.

"Yes, that was a most unfortunate incident. Do you require water?"

A nod of the head reminded her of the migraine, but also brought her water; so it was a decent trade. Her throat felt much better now that it was moist.

"Your injuries were quite severe; however the physician was able to correct the damage. You will regain full mobility in the leg," he gave her a cautious look, "though it may prove wise to refrain from punching turians, if you wish to avoid another broken hand and wrist."

Charlie gave him another chuckle, which in turn caused him to flash her another terrifying smile.

"I can't believe I got the jump on a turian soldier, you must not be a very good one."

Garrus' mandibles slacked and his mouth hung open. Charlie froze and silently cursed her stupid impulsive mouth. The conversation was just so easy and felt so natural to her; that her stupid mind let her slip into the old rhythm of banter.

_Dammit Charlie, you don't know this person. He's not your friend._

Garrus quickly recovered though, "I was not expecting an impressive attack from such a soft specimen of a human female."

They both chuckled then and Charlie once more relaxed.

"I am Lieutenant Garrus -"

"Vakarian," Charlie and the monotone voice spoke at the same time.

Garrus' plates bunched together and his eyes narrowed. Charlie froze for a second time and stuttered, "I, uh, must have … heard someone say it."

His plates marginally relaxed. "So, umm, I hope Grace didn't give you any trouble?"

Garrus flared a slight smile, "No, in fact, she was quite well behaved."

"I like Mr. Growlie. He's nice." Grace piped up once she heard her name. Then seeing as Charlie was clearly doing well enough to talk, she crawled in bed with her.

Garrus stood up and moved toward the door. "I should return to my station."

"Wait, I never said thank you."

"You also never apologized."

"I'm not saying I'm sorry for taking you hostage, _you_ were in _my_ colony. However, I am saying thank you for coming back and getting Grace and I away from that … thing and also for making sure I got here." She motioned vaguely the room.

"It was my pleasure."

And then he was gone.

* * *

Soon after Garrus left, a doctor walked in and checked on her. Apparently, she had shattered her knee cap and broken her tibia. The doctor was frankly surprised that Charlie's story corroborated Garrus' own account. Apparently the physician was under the impression that there had to be more to the tale than "falling on it the wrong way". She informed him that she was just naturally gifted at accruing painful injuries; unfortunately he did not find her amusing. When he was finished poking and prodding, he asked if he could get her anything. Charlie only wanted one thing.

"Could I have some paper and a pen?" At the doctors confused face she added, "I want to be able to write some things down, but I also want to be able to take it with me when I leave here."

He bobbed his head in a bird-like fashion and handed her a bendable piece of opaque plastic. After Charlie gave him a blank stare, he showed her how to activate the screen and how bring up an English keypad. Charlie grinned at the unassuming marvel of technology.

"I can keep this?" She asked the doctor with a wild look of hunger in her eyes.

"Yes, of course. It is just a writing pad. We have quite a few of them." As he left, he quietly mumbled a few words that weren't picked up by the translator, though Charlie was pretty sure that she heard "humans" before he was gone.

Charlie really wanted to dive into her project, but she realized that she had been neglecting Grace. The poor girl had had a terrifying 24 hours and had lost both of her parents.

"Grace? How are you?"

"I'm ok. Mr. Growlie gave me some food, but it was gross."

Charlie sighed. She had no idea what she should say to her. Should she ask about her parents or would that make her feel worse? Charlie was many things, but psychologist was not one of them.

"What else happened while I was asleep?"

"Well a scary man wanted to take me away from Mr. Growlie, but he wouldn't let me go. I was happy about that, because everyone else here seems really mean. Then he took me on a shuttle like the Hoover, but it was really big. You were there too and your lips were blue. I told everyone there that they weren't 'sposed to be that color. I don't know if they understood me, but Mr. Growlie sang me a pretty song. It sounded like a bird's song, but there was humming too! It was nice and he is nice. Then they took you away and I couldn't see you anymore. I was really scared, but Mr. Growlie showed me his glowing arm and then he could talk to me. It was really cool to understand him, but I don't like that weird voice. It doesn't sound like him at all. That's when he got me some food and then we came here and you woke up." Grace's tone was her usual mix of chipper excitement, but her body language didn't support that at all. The girl had pressed herself tightly against Charlie's left and Grace's grip on her arm was turning painful.

Still unsure what to say that could comfort the child, Charlie opted for a kiss on the top of her head.

"Char," Grace whispered after a moment. "What's going to happen to us now?"

"I don't know." Charlie answered honestly. "However, I promise that whatever happens you and I are going to stay together."

"Good. Char, they aren't going to make us go back there, are they?"

Charlie could feel the girl silently weeping and could feel the tears forming in her own eyes. "No, I'm not going back there. We'll go somewhere else and we'll get a new home."

The two stayed like that for a while, clutching each other. Charlie wasn't sure how she was going to keep her promise to Grace. She had no claims on the girl; they weren't related and as far as everyone in this universe knew Charlie was only 17. Her eighteenth birthday celebration had been planned by the Mindoir colonists. It was supposed to be in a month, maybe she could lie to the officials and claim to be 18 already. Of course that train of thought brought even more fears. It was one thing to exist as a ghost in a small colony, but it was quite another to do the same back on Earth or wherever they were taking her. Someone was going to demand the truth and the truth was the one thing Charlie didn't have. Whatever happened though she was going to keep that promise to Grace; Charlie just didn't know how.

Eventually there was a chime at the door and that brought Charlie and Grace out of their shared grief.

"Um, come in?"

The door opened to reveal a very tall turian with bold white markings streaked across his face; he was taller than Garrus, though he doesn't seem as wide. Of course, Charlie realized, that's because this man was not in armor and was wearing a uniform.

"Please pardon the interruption, I was informed that you were well enough to admit visitors. I am Captain Adrien Victus." His translator informed Charlie.

Charlie tried to sit up further in the bed, but was hindered by her right leg which was suspended from the ceiling in a sling.

"I need to discuss the specifics of the attack on Mindoir with you."

"Right, of course. Um, does Grace need to be here for this?" Charlie gave a pointed look at the girl.

"No, of course not. Lieutenant Modius has offered to look after her while we talk."

A woman walked through the opening after he finished speaking. Charlie had never seen a turian female in the game, so she was shocked by how delicate the woman looked. Her plates were a warm chocolate brown, but still retained the opalescent quality Garrus' had. She had bright green eyes and had somehow arranged her face to appear pleasant without showing her teeth. However, it was when she spoke that Charlie was truly impressed with the lieutenant.

"I'm afraid I do not have any ice cream, but I was able to find some food that isn't those wretched rations." Modius was speaking to Grace and held a hand out to her with her palm facing up, to hide the inch long talons. Also she spoke English. Her accent was decidedly British, but it was accentuated with hums and trills. Charlie thought it was beautiful, like she was singing the words and had a chorus of backup singers.

Grace took the woman's hand, but looked back at Charlie with questioning eyes.

"It's alright, Grace, you should go with …" Charlie let the question hang for a moment after a glance at the lieutenant.

"Cecilia, but you can call me Lia if you want to."

"See, she seems nice. Why don't you go with, Lia, and when you come back you should bring me some of that food." She gave the girl a wink and what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

Grace complied, but not before giving Charlie one last hug. After the pair had left the room and the door was once again shut, she turned her attention back to Victus.

"Where would you like me to start?"

"At the beginning of the attack on the colony."

"Very well."

Charlie relayed the events as best she could remember them, since she didn't have a timepiece with her during the attack the story was not as precise as she would have liked. She didn't leave anything out though. Charlie told him about the two batarians she had killed and Deborah and Jess' deaths. It felt very cold to be speaking of the deaths of the two women, Charlie was speaking in very clinical terms. She had to keep reminding herself that Victus did not need to know of the emotional trauma those deaths had brought her. He just needed facts. She also told him about the attack of the creature in the jungle and their escape back to the colony; when she got to the part about attacking Garrus though Victus stopped her.

"I know about what came after the attack, however I have a question. Have you met a turian before?"

"No, not in person. I've seen pictures though." That, Charlie thought, was actually quite true.

"Why did you attack him?" Victus' voice did not sound angry, though it was almost impossible to tell, and his monotone translator did not help.

"Well, until yesterday I had not met an alien before, and the first ones I do see are killing my friends. They killed Grace's parents and everyone else I know are either dead or slaves. To be honest, sir, I didn't know who he was. As I informed Lieutenant Vakarian, I won't apologize for disarming him. Maybe if I was alone and didn't have Grace to worry about I would have had a more diplomatic solution, but I'm not sure how I was supposed to know that your men were soldiers and not well-armed mercenaries."

Victus appeared to ponder this for a moment before asking, "Would you have killed him?"

"If he had given me a reason to, yes; in hindsight, that would have been a mistake. But I would have killed all of your men, and more than likely died trying, to protect Grace." Charlie was sure that this was the wrong answer, but Victus' quiet stare seemed to pull the truth from her. She didn't break eye contact though, even though every inner voice she had was screaming at her.

Victus only smiled. "Well I am not sure I would have liked our odds against you. I have to say I am impressed with your tenacity. I never thought I would see a human female take on an armored turian with nothing more than a combat knife. While I may not agree with the manner in which you handled the situation, I do understand the reason why. Protection of your nest is a strong instinct and I am not surprised to see it is shared with another species."

Charlie felt buoyed by the unexpected praise. She had been a little afraid of some form of retribution. To have a reprimand replaced with pride, felt like a giant weight had been lifted off her chest.

"Why is it that you do not have a universal translator chip?"

Charlie had never heard of such a device. She supposed that it made sense, especially since the other turians could understand her even though they clearly did not speak her language.

"I have never had the opportunity to acquire one." The statement was not a question, but her voice lifted at the end of it.

"That is strange, though I suppose it is not unheard of. I have not had a reason to practice my English since the unfortunate Relay 314 Incident."

Charlie nodded her head as if she understood that and maybe she did, but the memory was quite fully formed yet.

_I should have read the stupid codex entries._

_Yes, you should have. But you just had to rush through the games, didn't you?_

"Captain Victus, what are you going to do with us?" Charlie asked breaking through her inner thoughts.

"Well that depends on you, actually. There is a colony in the relay system that we can leave you both at." He stopped when he noticed Charlie's wince. "Or we can take you to the Citadel. We have to make a trip out there anyways, since we have lost track of the batarians, and I can make sure you find the human consulate there."

Charlie let out a relieved sigh at the prospect of going somewhere she knew. "I would appreciate it, sir. Is there any news you can give me about the slaver attack? Why did they attack us?"

Victus huffed and let out a small growl. "We do not know why they chose Mindoir to attack. They wiped every console in the colony clean and the research platform is missing." He stopped and ran a hand across his fringe and gave Charlie a nervous look. _He wasn't supposed to tell me that. _"I am sorry to tell you that about half of the colonists are missing."

Charlie was quiet for a moment, as she hoped that Ethan, Ian, and the rest of her friends weren't being tortured as slaves. She turned somber when she realized that would mean they were dead instead.

"Well I will let you get some rest. We will arrive at the Citadel in three days."

After Captain Victus left, Charlie turned her attention back to her small datapad.

_So what do I know about Mass Effect?_

_Quite a bit, want to start with the alien races?_

_Might as well. Let's see there were batarians, asari, krogan, salarians, quarians, geth, and of course the turians._

_Right. Don't forget the vorcha and drell. Oh and those jellyfish things._

_Hanar?_

_Yup._

_Oh and those giant, monotone elephants?_

_Wait, what were those called? Oy … elcor?_

_Sure why not._

Charlie wrote down everything she could remember about the various species, which was surprisingly very little. What was actually written on the pad was more of a list of names and the various quirks that those members of the species possessed. With that task completed she turned her attention to the actual missions from the games.

_Do you recall any dates? _

_No._

_Shit. Alright so it's currently 2170, that much I know. Maybe if I could find out what Shepard is doing right now I can try to place where I am._

_How do you know Shepard is real?_

_I don't, but Garrus is apparently a real person and so is Primarch, uh I mean, Captain Victus. Wait wasn't he a General before. For that matter, why isn't Garrus at C-Sec?_

_Either this universe is different from the silly game or we are here before everything happens._

_Agreed. Well let's get everything that I can remember written down._

Unfortunately, Charlie was slowly starting to realize that she couldn't recall everything about the Mass Effect games. It had been over a year since she last played them and her life had taken such a strange turn of events since then. It also didn't help that she had only played them once and that she had kind of rushed through them. Charlie had been planning to go back and replay them more thoroughly, but well she had touched the pillar and here she was.

Charlie could remember certain events though. She knew that there was a Prothean beacon and that there was an evil ex-Spectre named Saren. She could remember that there was a giant, zombie producing plant on one of the missions. Oh and there had been the rachni, she had killed the queen. She had been playing a renegade the first time through. Actually it was a good thing she had killed the queen, because in Mass Effect 3 she had spared the queen and that turned out terribly. Then there was the ending, she knew that Shepard killed Saren and everything ended happily, but she couldn't remember the details. There was definitely an epic space battle involved with the ending though. Right, she thought, Saren had a reaper ship and the Normandy had destroyed it.

_You know if the graphics had been better, maybe I wouldn't have rushed my play through._

_Well maybe you should write BioWare and inform them how inconvenient they are making this for you?_

_Shtup ir._

The second and third games were a little clearer, but not by much. It was frustrating how little she could remember of the individual missions. In the end, she had a note pad full of almost random material. For the few missions that were very clear, Charlie was missing some key information. For instance, what planet the mission took place on. At least she could remember the core plot.

The sound of the door opening brought Charlie out of her thoughts and she quickly turned the pad off.

"I got oranges and bananas for you!"

Charlie suppressed a groan at the mention of the fruits. There were not a lot of fruits that would grow on Mindoir, since there was never any frost. The taste of oranges and bananas had definitely gotten very old for Charlie.

Grace, however, was wearing the first real smile that Charlie had seen since before the attack. So she acquiesced and graciously accepted the fruit.

"Oh thank you." Grace sat down in the chair, previously occupied by Captain Victus, and began reading a book that Charlie recognized.

"Thank you for watching her." She offered Cecilia a smile. "Were any of our other things brought up from the planet?"

"Not much, I'm sorry. We're going to leave most of it for the Alliance team to take care of. I'm sure that they'll forward your belongings." Cecilia gestured to the book. "I was part of the second team and I found myself in your home. I had seen Grace with Garrus, umm, Lieutenant Vakarian and I thought it might be nice for her to have something of her own."

Charlie felt the corner of her mouth twitch at the other woman's obvious fondness for Garrus. She was adorable, Charlie thought, and also very sweet. Perhaps she could get some information about the attack from her.

"Captain Victus told me that the computers on Mindoir had been wiped." Charlie put on her best innocent blank face. "Have you discovered why, yet?"

"Well, no not yet." Cecilia began slowly. It was obvious that she was cautious about speaking to Charlie on mission details. "The Alliance has gotten quite a few details about Mindoir wrong though."

_Hmm… the Alliance is involved. Well I guess that makes sense, we are human. I wonder what details she's talking about._

"Ugh, the Alliance." Charlie made a show of rolling her eyes. "Inefficient bureaucracy at its finest, don't tell me that they didn't tell you that we were here?"

Cecilia seemed to relax a bit. "Oh they told us, but they also told us that you had a geosynchronous research platform and you don't. The batarians wouldn't have an interest in such a thing."

_What?_

Charlie's mouth echoed this sentiment, "What?"

"So you didn't have one?"

"No, I mean not that I know of." Charlie was quiet for a second. "Why did the Alliance send a turian ship to rescue us from the batarians?"

Cecilia's drew her face plate tight. "I'm not sure I should say anything more."

"Please? Were you following the batarians or what was going on?"

Cecilia opened her mouth to answer her, looked to the door, then locked eyes with Charlie and nodded her head. "I think you should ask Captain Victus that very question. However, I have to get back to my station." She placed a hand on Grace's shoulder. "It was lovely to meet you, Lady Grace."

The girl giggled at Cecilia and then offered her a hug, before the turian left the room.

"You know I _always_ tell you the stories. How about you read me one from your book?" Charlie asked Grace.

"Okay." Grace cheerfully responded. Then she launched into a story that involved unicorns making friends with dragons. Charlie leaned back and smiled, making a show of paying attention. However she was actually considering the questions Cecilia had left her with. She had been so focused on the discovery that she was in the Mass Effect universe that she hadn't given any thought to the day's events and what they meant.

Charlie was angry that she hadn't mourned her friends properly or buried the dead that she had seen. She had even stepped over Rev. Stilton without giving it much thought, like that was normal. Nothing about the day had been normal. Losing the two people that had given you a new life, was not normal. Debbie was dead and she had not been able to save her. Charlie tried to tell herself that it wasn't her fault. That the woman had gotten in the way all by herself, but she did not believe that. She should have noticed that Debbie had a pistol or she should have been able to get the rifle off the fallen batarian faster. If she had been able to do either of those things, Charlie felt like she could have saved both Jess and Debbie. It would have been easier to just blame Debbie, but Victus had mentioned the protective instinct and Charlie knew that Debbie had done what she felt was best. If the woman had not jumped out when she did, then Charlie would likely have been shot instead. Then Debbie and Grace would have died, as well. Her heart ached for Ethan and everyone else that was gone. Especially Ethan though. She knew he would never have been taken alive and the man would have fought till the last bit of life in him was extinguished. Charlie knew that she could not have saved them all. If Ethan couldn't, how could she have the arrogance of assuming she could?

So while half listening to Grace tell the story, she thought on her friends. James, who was constantly late to work and always had a fantastically horrid excuse. He was a good friend though and always took time out of his day to talk to her. James was also one of the only people in the colony who seemed to understand sarcasm. Ian, who was always working in the damn Hoover and was always so excited to talk to her; she had had to constantly watch herself around that man. He wanted to know so much about her, Charlie would find herself accidentally telling him more about her past than she should. She trusted him though, Ian always smiled and had a joke. Also he showed her some truly remarkable things that his tablet could do …

_The tablet. I had the tablet._

"Grace?" The girl looked up from the story with a little reproach at having been interrupted.

"I'm sorry, but where did they put my clothes? I wanted to put my shirt on while I listened to your story."

"I think the doctor put them over here. Mr. Growlie, I mean Mr. Garrus, told them that they couldn't take your things." Grace reluctantly walked over to the side of the bed and opened a drawer with an exaggerated sigh.

"I was just getting to the good part. Did you just want a shirt?"

"Well actually," Charlie said, as if the thought had just occurred to her. "If there is a little black box in there, could I have that too?"

Grace gave an even bigger sigh this time and threw Charlie's shirt at her. Charlie struggled to get the shirt on with the bandage on her hand. Finally Grace popped up with the tablet.

"Is this it?"

"Yes, thank you Grace." The relief was palpable in Charlie's voice. "So will you tell me what the unicorn found in the cave now?"

"Well he found Otis." Grace clamped a hand on her mouth. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that, yet. Now I've ruined the story."

Charlie could not help the laugh that slipped through her smile. "Oh, well I don't know who Otis is. So I think the rest of the story is still a secret. Why don't you finish it for me?"

With Grace occupied once more on reading the tale aloud, Charlie opened the folded tablet. Her program diagnostic had finished running at some point and the screen was beeping with the results. Closing the memo, Charlie decided to search the tablet for some of Ian's own projects. She had done this before, but they were locked to her user profile. There wasn't a lot she could do from her profile, but she was going to try.

It took her three hours. In those three hours, Grace had finished her story and Charlie had let her crawl in bed. She had also taken an hour long break from the project to sing Grace to sleep. However Charlie had finally managed to open one application of Ian's, his communications. Charlie did not even know that he was communicating with anyone. There were only a few computers on Mindoir and none of them were hooked up to each other. It was almost an accident that she even stumbled across his communications folder as Charlie had reached an impasse at her pathetic attempt to hack his profile. She could not read older communiqués, but she could read the last one.

To: Charon – Mindoir, Ithaca System (111554.5621.9894.1237.1)

From: Pluto (LOCATION REDACTED)

Extraction incoming. The soul that you have acquired is not to journey with you. The beacon enclosed will deliver you to me.

_The fuck. _

The message was not particularly helpful. It did not make sense, but it was dated three days prior to the attack. Charlie assumed that the beacon was a program, because the message took up too much space for such a short transmission. However, someone, presumably Ian, had deleted it from the tablet. It was confusing. Had Ian known about the attack? Why was he called Charon? Is Pluto the planet, a person, or a cartoon dog? Charlie knew that Charon was the ferryman of the mythical Hades, but she had no idea why Ian was called that or who this "soul" was. However, it was now very late and Charlie was far too tired to handle the implications of this message. Ian was a very good friend and she refused to believe that he would choose not to help the colony.

Charlie's brain was mutinous as it demanded rest. She lowered the bed to a sleeping position and closed her eyes. While waiting for the screams to settle back in her ears and wondering what new horrors would join them this time, her eyes sprung open. This would be the first night without her ID tucked firmly in her hand. It was a disturbing feeling that rushed through Charlie, it felt like she had been cut off from her life. Grace shifted in her sleep and the movement caused Charlie to wonder if perhaps it was time to let it go.

* * *

"You are going to have to repeat that." Captain Victus did not usually growl, but the salarian scientist was getting the better of him.

"Repetition is inefficient. Perhaps should have hearing checked." The salarian jumped in spite of himself when Victus growled again. "As I have previously stated, the drug used on the Malindra was a chemical compound that retards the angiogenesis of specific tumors. This retardation by itself is not harmful. Can be helpful even. The second stage of the compound then destroys the affected tumor-"

"I don't understand what you are getting at, I'm not a scientist."

The salarian gave an exasperated sigh at the Captain's ignorance. "Perhaps if you would allow me to finish -"

"I have allowed you to finish three times now and I am no closer to understanding. Give me a three sentence answer as to what all this babble means."

The salarian made a show out of stopping and repeatedly counting on his fingers. Each time he would get to three he would stop, shake his head, and repeat the process. After five minutes of this Captain Victus was sorry that the salarian was on Sur'Kesh, though he was giving serious consideration to the idea of rerouting the ship there so he could strangle this salarian in person.

"Chemical inhibits the ability for any biotic to function, including asari. After an hour of exposure the afflicted person will lose ability to function and slip into coma; after 3 hours the person is dead. There is no cure and we cannot synthesize the chemical compound." Each sentence was punctuated with a pause and another finger being raised.

Captain Victus sat back in his chair and stared at the gel representation of the salarian in front of him. "What do you mean there is no cure? Surely one exists and you just haven't discovered it yet."

"This will require more than three sentences." The salarian warned. After a wave of the captain's hand, he continued. "We cannot reverse the effects of the diminished element zero nodules, however it is possible that we can stop the process. The problem is that once the drug has severed blood flow to the nodules, the brain starts to shut down. The older the biotic, the more dependent they are them. This causes coma and death. Angiogenesis drugs are common though and there are ways to prevent them from continuing to disrupt blood vessels. Never have seen such quick acting chemical, will need to continue study."

"Could the batarians have developed this … drug on their own? I'm under the impression that their medical advances are behind ours."

"We are calling the drug Omega-Enkaphalin. To answer your question, I am not privy to the Hegemony's scientific advances."

"Well contact the STG and see what they know of this Omega …. this O-E."

The salarian scientist gave a haughty sniff. "Was not aware I answered to the turian Hierarchy. Suggestion prudent though."

After the salarian scientist closed the connection, Victus continued to stare at the empty space the gel had occupied. This was going to be bad. This could and probably would mean war with the Hegemony and even though that trouble had been brewing on the horizon for a while now; Victus was not sure if the galaxy was ready for it. Especially if the batarians now had a way to kill biotics, while it wouldn't affect the turian military, it would wreak havoc on the asari and even the human forces.

Captan Victus expelled the air from his lungs and reached for the bottom drawer of his desk. He pulled out his Manaean Brandy and a glass. It was going to be one of those kind of nights.


	8. Chapter 8

The next three days passed quickly for Charlie and Grace. For the majority of the time they were alone and confined to the medical bay. Well they were always confined to the medical bay, but occasionally they had visitors. Captain Victus came by once a day to check on Charlotte. He asked her quite a few questions about her training and how she had received it. He was also very concerned about what she planned to do now and strongly encouraged her to join the military, though he understood her apprehension about leaving Grace alone. Cecilia Modius came by during her off hours and Charlotte found her to be a friend. Lia claimed that she was only there to practice her English, but Charlie could see that it was Grace that had stolen her heart. Garrus Vakarian only came to visit her once more, but he stayed for five hours.

"What are you working on?"

Charlie jumped and fell out of the bed. She did not hear the turian's approach. The damaged leg was healed by now so the fall didn't hurt her physically, but her pride was severely wounded.

"Oy gevalt, don't you knock?"

Garrus lifted one mandible and offered her a hand. Wait, was he smirking at her? "I believe if I had knocked, you still would not have noticed. Are all humans so ignorant of their surroundings?"

"Are all turians such asses?"

"No, I believe that would just be me, but it is a nice specimen." He paused and shook his head. "I apologize. I do not know how we ended up in a verbal sparring match."

"Probably, because you know you'd lose a real one." She smirked at him and Garrus raised his eyeplates at her, visibly restraining himself from retorting. Charlie raised her hands. "Alright I'll stop. I'm sorry."

He gave her a wary look. "Well if you are done. I did ask you a question. What are you working on?"

Charlie gave him an appraising look, before letting out a frustrated sigh. "I'm trying to get into this." She tossed the data pad at him and he caught it.

"I believe the catch is right here." Garrus unfolded the pad.

"Oh well I'm glad you were here to show me. Whatever would I have done without you?" Charlie gave him a mock angry glare.

Garrus chuckled and turned on the device. "Is it yours?"

"Yes"

"Then all you have to do is enter the pass code."

Charlie turned the glare into horribly construed innocence. "What if I forgot it?"

Garrus tossed it back to her. "Well I would say you are out of luck. So who is the original owner?"

"I told you it's mine."

"And I am the Primarch."

"That explains why the turians allow such a schlemiel on the ship."

Garrus laughed in spite of himself. He had never spent much time with humans, but he could understand why so many turians found them infuriating if they were anything like this female. "What does that word mean?"

"Schlemiel? Oh, so your farkakte translator can't keep up with Yiddish. This is good to know."

"Is that a language?"

"No, I'm making up words to fuck with you."

Garrus raised a hand to prevent the smile that was threatening to form. "Knowing you, I would not doubt it."

"Alright, yes it is a language. Well it's a mix of two languages really. Schlemiel means idiot."

"And the other words mean?"

"You can't expect me to give away all of my secrets so soon? Buy a girl a drink first."

"Do I have to buy you a beverage to get you to tell me who that Tevolge 9 data pad belongs to?"

Charlie opened her mouth for a retort than realize that her face already given her away.

"That is a very specialized piece of equipment. I have only seen one once before. Of course that is not surprising given how tightly the salarians tend to hold onto their technology." He noted the surprised look on Charlie's face and then continued. "So given all of that information, I am going to guess that this does not belong to a young farm girl with a smart mouth and that you have no idea what this device is?"

Garrus was rather pleased with the way he had made Charlie shut up. However that pleasure only lasted for about 30 seconds before Charlie looked back up to him. Her large eyes had narrowed and though she was wearing a large smile there was no humor in her face. Wait, was she giving him an evil grin?

"You might be correct. This could be a Tevolge 9." She idly bounced the data pad in one hand. "You could probably confiscate it from me and you might even be justified in doing so." Charlie held the pad out to Garrus and waited for his arm to move to take it, before snatching it back. "However, the second you leave I will call the captain and let him know that you are on your way to bring it to him. I somehow doubt that a mere lieutenant, whose only job is cleaning the mud off the ground vehicles, would be put in charge of decrypting it. Much less looking inside of it."

Garrus' face turned very dark, as he narrowed his eyes and drew his mandibles tight to his face. She had him, damn the spirits. How she had found out his post he would never – Lia. Lia told her. Damn all of the spirits. Charlie held the pad out, as if daring him to take it.

"Or?"

As quick as the evil grin had appeared it was replaced by a genuine smile. "Well your second option would be to help me break into it and by 'help' I mean you show me how, none of this going too quickly for me to follow crap. Once we both have our curiosity sated, then we will both bring it to the captain. I imagine you might even get a promotion. Deal?"

Garrus didn't want to smile, but his face betrayed him. "Deal."

That is why Garrus spent the next few hours in the medical bay and missed his dinner. He tried to convince Charlie to let him take it and continue working on it alone, but she was having none of his excuses. Garrus found her to be delightfully infuriating. He wanted to hate her annoying habit of correcting him or calling him some word he didn't know or how she would harass him endlessly when he made a mistake, but he just couldn't. Garrus instead found himself doing all the same things back at Charlie. He kept expecting her to get annoyed with him, but instead she would laugh and throw it back in his face. She could take as well as she could give. Charlie was woefully ignorant with many basic technical skills, but she was a very quick study and Garrus wanted to show her more techniques than were necessary with the project. Eventually they were able to break into Ian's personal files.

"Well this is disappointing." Garrus grumbled.

They had just opened the only other communiqué that had not been wiped. Charlie was staring at Garrus like he was an idiot. "What?" He asked.

"This is disappointing? Ian, or his pseudonym Charon, just mentioned that he is part of Cerberus! Cer-ber-us, Garrus that's pretty bad."

"Is this a human thing?"

Charlie slapped her face. Maybe no one knows about Cerberus, yet. "Sure, let's just say it's a human thing."

"Okay, well what makes them so bad?"

Charlie had no idea what to say. She knew what made them bad, but all of that happened in the future, or well it happened in a game. "They're … xenophobic terrorists … or, at least, that's what I've heard."

Garrus drew his plates above his eyes down and stared back at the message. "Well this message does not tell us very much; let us look through his programs."

The rest of the information was a very odd mix. There was an entire folder that was filled with topological maps of the region the colony was in. It appeared that Ian was very interested in what lay beneath the settlement. However, there was no information about what that could be. There were also records that a large shipment of element zero had recently been sent to Mindoir, but Charlie didn't remember that happening, nor had the Argo found any. There was one program that was very disturbing; to Garrus at least, Charlie didn't understand it. The program had been partially erased, but Garrus was able to salvage enough of it to understand its purpose. It was a highly specific piece of programming that would allow the user to gain full access to the environmental controls of an asari ship. Garrus let loose a curse that his translator did not pick up.

"I'd ask you to teach me that one, but I'd probably butcher the harmonics."

"This is bad."

"I believe it is your turn to elaborate."

"I probably should not discuss mission specifics with a human."

Charlie gave him a look and propped one hand on her hip. "Honey, we are way past that." She held a hand out and beckoned to him. "Give."

Garrus sighed and decided to ignore all of his inner voices shouting reasons that Charlie shouldn't know about the Malindra. "Fine, about two weeks ago the asari cruise liner, Malindra, was attacked by batarians. Almost all of the asari are missing and everyone else was slaughtered. It could have been a biological attack, but that does not explain why the rest of the levo-amino aliens did not appear to have been affected. Also there was the problem of how the batarians were able to gain access to the environmental controls so quickly. We were chasing the batarians responsible for the attack … "

"When you came to Mindoir." Charlie finished for him. Garrus nodded his head.

Charlie paused for a moment as she put the information together. "There is another thing. A little birdie told me that there was supposed to have been a platform orbiting Mindoir and you didn't find one. Those photos were satellite images. If the platform was missing …"

"The batarians could have taken it or Cerberus could have taken it after they picked up your friend."

"If he helped in the attack on the Malindra, and it certainly appears that he did, then he is no friend of mine. Also nobody came to pick him up. I saw him during the attack, he was definitely there."

Charlie suddenly chuckled, "Actually he was running back to the Hoover, when I saw him. He was probably looking for his data pad."

Garrus grimly nodded his head. "I think it is time we showed this to Captain Victus."

"Agreed."

Grace had already fallen asleep, as it was quite late, so they left her in the room after asking a nurse to keep an eye on the girl.

The trip up to the Captain's quarters should have been unexciting, but Charlie was almost bouncing to see the inside of an actual spaceship. She kept trying to peer into every open room they passed. Eventually Garrus was forced to promise that he would take her on a tour later, to keep Charlie from slowing them down anymore.

They were finally standing in front of a rather inconspicuous door and Garrus was nervously shuffling his feet. "I should have sent him a message, before just showing up here unexpected."

Charlie sighed and mumbled, "Do I have to do everything?" before tapping the call button.

"Yes?" A voice called from inside.

"Umm." Garrus found that his voice had decided to take a vacation.

"Charlotte Nacht and Lieutenant Vakarian, uh, sir." Garrus gave Charlie a terrified stare to which she replied, "Big baby".

"Come in."

They entered the room and saw a stern Captain Victus wearing only loose pants that were slit up the sides to accommodate his spurs. "It is 0100 hours; this had better be important Vakarian."

Garrus ran a nervous hand over his fringe and gave a expectant glance to Charlie, however she was going to let him take the lead for moment.

"Well?"

"Sir, we have found some evidence that links a colonist by the name of, Ian Rodriguez, to the attack on the Malindra and also to a human organization by the name of Cerberus."

Victus furrowed his eyeplates and shifted his gaze to the beaming Charlie. "Explain."

Assuming that he was talking to her, Charlie told him the tale of decoding the tablet. She left out the blackmail and implied that she had "tricked" Garrus into helping her break into the security. For the most part Charlie focused on the information they had discovered. When she finished her recitation, Victus was sitting in his desk chair with one ankle propped up on his knee, a hand slowly drumming on the desk, and the other stroking a mandible.

"Well this is both good and bad."

"Sir?" Garrus spoke for the first time since coming in.

"It is good, because now that we know who to turn our attention on we might be able to avoid war with the batarians. It is bad, because now we know that we have a new powerful enemy and we might still have war with the batarians. You said you knew of this Cerberus?"

"I've heard rumors, captain, that's all" Charlie answered, suddenly very shy.

"What rumors?"

"That Cerberus is a xenophobic terrorist organization and that their reach is longer and better funded than we would all like."

Victus nodded his head slowly. "Well good job to both of you. I have a few calls to make and you should get some rest."

The pair turned to leave and Victus added, "It is a good thing, that the tablet did not have an 'erase if tampered with' protocol. If it had, this meeting would have gone differently and I do not believe either of you would have wanted to be responsible for the loss of this valuable and, possibly, life saving information."

Charlie and Garrus gave each other wide-eyed glances and quickly left the room looking properly chastened.

Victus would have actually chastised them both, especially Vakarian, but he was too caught up in the implications of this information and truthfully he was proud that a member of his crew had caught it. He wasn't lying when he said he had a few vid calls to make, but he also had a letter to write.


	9. Chapter 9

Garrus never did take Charlie on that tour of the ship, but she couldn't really blame him. The next day they hit the Citadel and Charlie was a mixture of emotions. She was excited to see the Citadel for herself and to actually get to leave the medbay, however Charlie had very much enjoyed being on the Argo and was remiss to leave it, Cecilia, and Garrus. She wasn't sure if she would ever see him again and he had turned out to be a fascinating person and an excellent verbal sparring partner.

When she actually stepped out of the ship and saw the Citadel, all thoughts of remorse over leaving the Argo vanished. She and Grace pressed themselves against the glass and marveled the vastness of the station. From where she was standing she could clearly see three of the five arms. Charlie had never truly grasped how large it was. Each arm could have held two or maybe even three large cities, back on Earth. It had a sort of industrial and cosmopolitan beauty to it. A clearing of a turian throat, pulled her attention from the spectacle. She followed the soldier, Charlie wasn't sure if he had given her a name, through the maze of hallways, elevators, and people to the human embassy. They were unceremoniously left there in front of the door. Charlie looked at Grace and put her back down on the floor. The child had quickly decided that being held was the best way not to get lost in the swarm of aliens. Charlie was incredibly impressed with how well Grace was handling the exposure, as she knew for a fact that Grace was born and raised on Mindoir and thus had never seen an alien. The girl's eyes betrayed her fear and she was slightly trembling, but other than that she was standing tall and very cautiously staring at the strangeness.

Inside the room, Charlie found the receptionist at her desk.

"What is the purpose of your visit to the Embassy and can I have your identification numbers?" The red-haired woman asked in a bored voice, without looking up.

"Uh, I don't think I have one and I don't know Grace's. As to our purpose, I guess we are refugees."

This time the woman did look up, though Charlie wished she hadn't, because the woman gave her a slightly disgusted look. "Planet and colony of origin."

"Mindoir."

"Name and date of birth."

"I'm Charlotte Elizabeth Nacht, March 10, 2152, and this is Grace Talitha Wallis, December 4, 2162."

The woman typed in the information and made a disgusted snort. "There are no records of either of you. The colony of Mindoir apparently didn't deem it necessary to keep Earth informed of its occupants. You will need to fill out a form to be submitted to the so-called leaders of this colony."

This time it was Charlie's turn to be disgusted. "I don't know who the hell died and made you queen, but whoever did also _deemed it necessary_ to make you deaf, as well as thick. We are the only survivors, which is why I called us 'refugees', of the colony on Mindoir. So if you would show even a hint of respect for the dead, I might not teach it to you. I want to see the ambassador, as is my right."

The woman looked taken aback and then leaned forward a bit with an evil smirk. "If you are going to be hostile I can have C-Sec up here in five minutes, maybe you'll see the ambassador after you meet your bail."

Three minutes later, a very different red haired woman was showing them down the hall to the ambassador's office. This woman looked very similar to the previous receptionist, except that this one was being very courteous and was wearing a perfect representation of fear. Also her hair was a mess and her lip was bruised and bleeding.

The new receptionist knocked once on the door before opening it and announcing, "A Ms. Nacht here to see you, Ms. Goyle."

_Goyle? I was expecting that bastard Udina, anything is better than him._

"Thank you, Ms. Shahari. Send them in."

As Charlie passed the nervous woman she said, "Thank you for your hospitality, Ms. Shahari."

The woman blanched and Charlie suppressed the urge to chuckle.

Charlie walked into the large, yet unassuming office and sat in one of the offered chairs across from Ambassador Goyle. Goyle looked to be in her fifties with salt and pepper hair swept up in a bun. She was wearing a plain black jacket and a purple blouse. She had the look of a sensible and honest woman with far too much on her plate.

The ambassador gave Charlie an appraising look. "If you can give me a reason to fire her, I will overlook what was surely an exuberant response to my receptionist."

"She spat on the names of the dead, refused to let us see our ambassador, and threatened to call security."

The aging woman frowned and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Very well, I suppose I should thank you for making my life easier. Though now I have to go through the process of hiring another one." Charlie decided in that moment that she rather liked Ambassador Goyle.

"So what can I do for you?"

"We are the only survivors of the attack on Mindoir. I honestly do not know what comes next."

Goyle expression turned sorrowful, "I was sorry to receive that news a few days ago. I have read the report on the attack, so I won't ask you to relive that event again." She gave a small smile to Grace. "However, usually refugees are directed to the next of kin."

"Neither of us have any and I'm almost 18, at any rate."

She nodded, "We don't actually have any records of you existing. Would you care to tell me why that is?"

Charlie took a deep breath and told the story she had been practicing, "I am an orphan and I do not know my parentage. I grew up on Omega and when I was twelve I was taken hostage by a human male, for questionable uses. After an in-flight emergency caused us to crash land on Mindoir, I was found and taken in by Ethan Wallis and his wife. I have been there ever since."

Charlie had said all of that in one breath without breaking eye contact with the ambassador. Goyle raised a single eyebrow at the fabrication and then twisted her lips in a smirk.

"That is quite the tale. Vague enough that I can't follow up and poke holes in it; and it has a dash of personal trauma that I'm sure was carefully crafted to illicit sympathy. Very well done."

Charle closed her eyes and asked. "Where did I lose you?"

"You have terrible delivery. I'm a politician and I have seen through much better liars than you." The woman was still smiling though, so it gave Charlie a small sense of hope. "Now the question becomes, what could be so bad that you would like be known as a scarred Omega orphan?"

Charlie looked at Grace, "The truth is I don't know how I came to be on Mindoir. I'm missing key pieces of my memory, however I can't tell you that because if I do you probably will not let me stay with Grace. I promised both her and her father that I would continue to protect her. What I said about Ethan Wallis was true. He did find me and both him and Dr. Deborah Wallis allowed me into their home. I am not leaving Grace and so I can't have you thinking that I am a mentally damaged amnesiac."

"You are not even 18 and you have no claim to her. I'm very sorry. I wish there was something I could do."

Charlie's impassioned plea for Grace was cut off before it began by a knock on the door.

"Admiral Hackett to see you ma'am." The voice of the bruised receptionist called from the door.

This announcement was followed by the door suddenly opening to reveal a much younger, than Charlie knew from before, and brown haired Admiral Steven Hackett.

"I'm not alone, Admiral." Goyle motioned to the two girls.

"I'm well aware of that, Goyle. I'm actually here to talk with all three of you. I apologize for my lateness; I was only recently made aware of this situation."

All three women, well two women and a girl, looked thoroughly confused by this statement.

"Charlotte Nacht I assume?" Charlie stood to shake his hand before finding her seat again.

"It is my understanding that I have you to thank for some very interesting intel." At the confused nod of Charlie's head, he continued. "I had the pleasure of receiving a very intriguing letter regarding your actions both on Mindoir and on the Argo. For someone so young, you do not make a habit of sitting down when there is work to be done. I will need a full report on what you know about Ian Rodriguez, but first I would like to make you an offer to join the Alliance military."

Charlie's eyes widened and for a fraction of a second she considered accepting the offer. She would surely have a career there and it was being offered by an Admiral so certainly that was quite the honor. However, there was Grace. Grace needed her and Charlie could not let her be put in foster care. Even if her new plan to avoid this consisted of stealing the girl and finding somewhere for the both of them to live; perhaps she would end up on Omega after all.

"I'm sorry, sir. I have to decline the offer."

The ambassador's face was the exact embodiment of the phrase, "Are you mad?" The Admiral just chuckled. "Yes, I was informed that you would say that. However I had to try. Captain Victus seemed to really take a shine to you though. It is good to know that even Mindoir, can produce individuals with tenacity and fire; individuals who can work very closely with our alien neighbors, even turians. I believe there was an agency that was recently looking for human individuals with those qualities, wasn't there ambassador?"

Charlie started to feel like she was being played and it appeared that Goyle was in on it as well. The ambassador looked like someone had dropped a large chocolate cake on her desk, as she gave Charlie a hungry appraising look.

"I do believe that memo crossed my desk as well, Steven."

"Yes, Captain Victus also thought this would be a good fit and sent his recommendation there last night."

"Can I ask what agency this is now?" Charlie looked between the two of them expectantly.

"Citadel Security, if you choose to accept."

"C-Sec? I'm not a trained police, nor am I qualified."

"I was under the impression that you had spent the past year being trained by ex-N6 marine Commander Wallis."

"I didn't know his rank."

"Regardless, you have enough recommendations that they will accept you."

"I'm not 18."

"Citadel Security is almost completely comprised of turians, with a handful of asari and salarians. Turians would consider you old enough to join. There is a training camp starting in two months, more than enough time to learn the rules and regulations."

"What about Grace?"

"Well even turians would consider her far too young." Charlie gave him an exasperated look and Hackett had a twinkle in eyes and a small smile for her. "If you are referring to her care, then I assure you that you will have enough time to see to her. I am also willing to transfer her to you as a ward after your eighteenth birthday. As for right now, I have assumed that position. The unfortunately confirmed death of her father will leave her his pension until her eighteenth birthday. We can have you both in an apartment by this afternoon, should you choose to accept."

"I don't know … why?" Charlie was completely overwhelmed by this turn of events.

Hackett gave her a firm look. "Ms. Nacht who are you trying to convince of your failings? Me or yourself? If you are trying to convince me, then you can go ahead and stop right now. You will not succeed in that regard. If you are trying to convince yourself, then I would recommend you stop right now; though I do know from personal experience that that can be easier said than done. As to why we want you to be in C-Sec, I cannot speak for the others, but I want you there because I want to keep an eye on you. You are obviously capable and driven and if you won't join the Alliance, then I want you in a position where you can do the most good. So, what is your answer?"

Charlie paused to consider all of this information. This was definitely not something she had even considered. Charlie was the kind of person who liked to have a plan. Lately she had not had a plan for the insanity that had become her life. She had not had a plan for jumping into the future, she had not had a plan for the attack on Mindoir, and now she did not have a plan for joining C-Sec. However, this did _seem_ like a good idea. It certainly beat her current plan of running away to Omega. So she said the only thing she could.

"I accept, sir, and thank you."

"Do not thank me yet. I may have failed to mention you will be the first human to join the ranks of C-Sec."

* * *

"Are you sure about her?" Goyle asked the admiral after the two girls had left.

"No, I can't say that I am."

"She might not be stable. I don't think she is dangerous, but …"

"I would be concerned if she was stable." He turned to look at the ambassador. "You're wrong though, she is dangerous. Nacht needs to be in a place I can watch her. If we didn't give her direction, I have no doubt she'd find it elsewhere. Also, she is somehow caught up in this Cerberus mess."

"So we watch her?"

"Indeed. We'll hope that I'm wrong and Nacht turns out to be an average woman with an above average knack for finding herself near trouble."

"I believe that would still qualify her as dangerous though. I've seen how she gets out of trouble. That reminds me, I need a new secretary."

* * *

Grace Wallis was not sure if she should be allowed to feel happy. Well she was happy, sort of. She was currently eating the most delicious thing she had ever tasted. Apparently this blue lady with tentacle hair had invented something called ice cream cake. Now Grace had obviously had both ice cream and cake before, but she had never even considered putting them together into one glorious concoction. The weird blue lady was clearly a genius. For some reason though the cake was also making her sad and she thought she knew why. It was because Grace really wanted to share this with her friends, Vicky and Ryan. Though mom probably wouldn't let her eat this before dinner anyways.

_Mom. Oh, that's right she's … dead now. Everyone's dead now._

Grace looked over at Char. Charlie had looked sad ever since that day too. Though Grace didn't think any of the adults could see it. She knew better though. Char was _always_ making jokes, but Grace hadn't seen her laugh at all. Well she had laughed when Mr. Garrus was there, but he only came to see them once. So, Grace did her best to make Charlie smile on her own. She put her best smile on, the one that usually worked miracles on Charlie, and did her best to hide her own grief. Grace knew that Charlie had saved her and she wasn't going to repay that with tears. If she cried, then that would mean she was being ungrateful.

Right now though Char was staring down at the remains of her own slice of cake and was looking miserable.

"Grace …" Charlie's face was still turned towards her plate, but her eyes had found Grace's own. "Grace, do you want to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?"

Grace thought she probably knew already. That stupid doctor with her silly face had tried to make her talk about that terrible day earlier. The doctor had told Grace to call her "Doctor Maryann" and Grace had told her that that was a stupid name for a doctor. She went on to say that her mom had been a real doctor and she had only four names: mom, Debbie, Deborah, or Dr. Wallis. Her mom was never Dr. Debbie, because that sounded stupid.

"Dr. Maryann" had asked Grace to talk about her mom, but Grace _really_ didn't want to. She tried to make it seem that she couldn't do her mom's memory justice and it didn't matter if Grace did talk about her mom, because "Dr. Maryann" was never going to meet her anyways.

"The day of the attack." Charlie was still holding her plate, though her position had shifted to a defensive posture. Grace almost giggled at the thought of Charlie being scared of her.

"I mean you were there and I was there. There wasn't a lot of time that we both weren't there. I mean what is there to talk about?"

Charlie sighed and set the plate down on their little coffee table. "Grace, we haven't talked about your parents."

"There isn't much to talk about they're dead. I heard what that man said. He said my daddy is dead too." Grace was starting to get very angry at Charlie. Didn't she know that there was nothing to talk about? This conversation would only end with Charlie getting sad and Grace did not want that to happen again.

"They might gone, but we aren't. We have to remember them, because we knew them best."

"I don't want to. Why can't we just move on? We have a new house," Grace gestured at the living room in their new apartment. "I'm going to go to school here and nobody is going to know about my parents or Mindoir. Why can't I just pretend that it didn't happen?"

Charlie looked very surprised. As if what Grace had said, had never occurred to her. "You can't just forget them, Grace. They loved you and they made you who you are. I really like who you are … and when other people meet you they are going to like you too. That means that it's important to remember them. To remember all of the good things, even if it's hard."

Grace looked down at her hands, she really didn't want to look at Charlie anymore. She didn't want to let the woman see that she had started to cry.

"You know you reminded me of my own family, just now."

Grace still didn't look at the woman, but she was surprised by the statement. Charlie had never talked about her family before. Grace half believed that she sprang up from the ground fully-formed.

"I didn't have a dad, but I had a mom, grandpa, and my bubbe. That means grandma." The woman paused and Grace could see her out of the corner of her eye. She appeared to be considering something. "I'll make you a deal. You tell me something you miss about your parents or friends, and I'll tell you something I miss about mine. I won't make you do it all at once, but once a day we'll sit down and talk about the past. Deal?"

Grace considered this. She really, really didn't want to talk about Mindoir, but she was extremely curious about Charlie's past. She turned to look at the woman. Grace had to be sure that Charlie wasn't sad, she wouldn't be able to say "yes" if Char was going to cry. Charlie was just sitting there looking at her with a concerned look. Grace didn't think it was sadness though.

"Deal."

* * *

The next two months passed slowly for Charlie. She had gotten Grace into a school and the girl seemed to be doing quite well for someone who had never seen an alien before. In fact, Grace seemed to find the aliens fascinating and was constantly bringing a new one home. After about a month though Grace settled into only bringing over a core group of friends, there was Darius, the turian, and Mya, the asari. This, of course meant that Charlie had to keep dextro food in the kitchen, but she actually rather enjoyed seeing what the species were like as children. However, she did not enjoy meeting the children's parents. Both the turian and asari parents seemed to think that Charlie was ill-suited to be a parent. Naturally, Charlie had assured them that Grace was simply her ward and that she was not substituting either of her parents.

The asari were easy to win over, by promising that she would not let the children out of her sight and that they were never to leave the apartment complex. This was simple, considering the apartment building was so large that the small primary school was contained within its levels.

The turians were considerably harder to convince of her ill intentions. The mother had been willing to trust her, but the father refused to let Darius come over alone. That was until he caught Charlie working out in the gym one day.

She had been using a practice dummy as a sparring partner when he walked in. Tevan asked her if she wanted to spar with him and she gladly accepted. Charlie thought that her technique was getting old, since she hadn't had a real partner in a few weeks. Tevan was good, but not great and left quite a few large openings in his guard. Charlie took full advantage of his weaknesses and though he did get a few solid hits in, after a few minutes he was tapping out. Tevan eventually asked her why she could fight like that and she simply responded with "I'm joining C-Sec." It had the benefit of being the truth, though not the whole truth. It had the added benefit of Tevan trusting her enough to let Darius come over unsupervised.

It was odd being the primary caregiver of Grace. Having a child was not something Charlie had ever, even with Justin, seriously considered. She had thought she might get around to it in the future, of course, but it was always an undefined and vague notion. Actually having one was … different. It definitely helped that Grace liked her quite a bit, although she didn't feel comfortable with the girl's blatant idolization of her. However, it was difficult not having anyone to fall back on. Her own mother had always been single, but she had Charlie's grandparents to help her. Charlie didn't have anyone and she was not about to ask for help. If the authorities thought that Charlie couldn't handle the care of Grace, she didn't think they would hesitate to take the girl away from her. So Charlie struggled alone and she thought she was doing a decent job. Though she was aware that that might change once she actually started working at C-Sec.

Speaking of her soon-to-be new job, Charlie was extremely nervous about starting there. Executor Pallin was not impressed with her and had made sure that she was very much aware of it. Actually it was probably a good thing that Charlie would have to prove herself, because that was forcing her into preparing. She would spend long hours in the gym and spend every night going over codes and regulations for the Citadel. Charlie was also slowly memorizing the layout of the station. Tevan may not have been a challenging sparring partner, but the event had reminded Charlie that she didn't know much about turian physiology and fighting tactics. They had a significant height and reach advantage over Charlie and they tended to use their legs in close combat. It had taken a vid call to Hackett to ask about personal trainers. He suggested one that worked for the Alliance and Charlie decided it was wiser to not question the Admiral about who was going to pay him.

The trainer was strict and was of the opinion that yelling got the best results, however he was also very good. So Charlie ignored his screaming. Waterby taught her about turian weaknesses and apparently there were not many of them. The waist was sensitive, as was under their crest and around the cowl. Under the arms was a good place as well, as Charlie had already discovered, and also their leg spurs. The best option was to get in close, to minimize the reach advantage and focus on their legs. When attacked properly they would fall quickly and they were not as fast at getting up as a human was. So basically, you can't be stronger or longer than they are, but you can play dirty, be more flexible, and, if you really work at it, you can be faster.

Eventually her two months were over and Charlie found herself in the C-Sec Academy standing nervously.

_What are you doing here? You're not ready for this. Just back out now before someone sees you. Charlie just leave, no one will blame you._

_I'll lose Grace._

_Damn. Carry on then._

She ran her hands through her short black curls and took a deep breath before approaching the front desk.

"I'm here for the orientation."

The small asari looked up at Charlie. Her large lavender eyes bore into Charlie's grey. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I think I am."

The asari nodded and looked back her screen. "Well, Charlotte Nacht, we received your medical clearance this morning. So this will be your last chance to walk away …"

"No, I'm going. Why do you keep repeating that?"

The receptionist gave a quick look around the almost empty room and leaned in closer to Charlie. "Well we kind of have a pool going."

"A pool?" Charlie repeated the words while blinking her eyes.

"Yeah just a friendly office wager."

"About me?"

The woman gave her a smirk. "You aren't the first human sent here. There have been four others, though you are the first female and the first non-military. They all start out with bravado and eventually they run home crying."

Charlie's only response was a raised eyebrow and some more rapid blinking.

The asari's smirk widened and she placed a small blue hand delicately on her chest. "I don't want you to think that _I _have done anything to cause their premature departure. I assure you that they left all on their own." The woman let her eyes slowly drift over Charlie's form. "I've given you two weeks. However that might be generous. You are extremely young and rather unimpressive looking."

Charlie stood there for a second. Who did this tiny blue bitch think she was? Unimpressive am I?

_You realize that she's playing you, right?_

Charlie let a small smirk play around her mouth. "You should have let me know that there was money riding on this. Put down 100 credits for me lasting a month; I'll trust you can find the bookie. You said the orientation was this way?"

Charlie gave the woman a cheeky wink and walked off in what she hoped was the right direction.

The receptionist watched the tall woman leave and muttered under her breath too low for Charlie to catch. "Maybe I should change that bet to three weeks."


	10. Chapter 10

**January 2171, ****_The Argo_**

"Staff Lieutenant Vakarian, stand down."

Garrus looked at his commanding officer, Commander Tredan, and then back at the sniveling scientist, Dr. Roka. Standing down was the last thing he wanted to do, however he eventually followed orders. Though he did drop the scientist to the ground rather harshly.

"I didn't have anything to do with the attacks, I swear." The simpering doctor was apparently also a fool.

"You are standing in the facility that created O-E. Do you honestly take us for idiots?" Garrus roared at the small human male.

The male was shaking on the ground. He hadn't even pulled himself out of the crumpled heap Garrus had left him in. "I'm just a … researcher. I … I didn't tell them to use it."

"Biological warfare is illegal for a reason, _Doctor_." Garrus put so much venom into the last word that Dr. Roka cringed. "Tell me why this drug was invented. I am aware that you were the leading researcher."

"We … I was paid to discover a way to neutralize biotic threats. I wasn't told why or even who."

"Does neutralize mean murder? Because that is what you have been doing. I find it hard to believe that a _respectable_ scientist would create such a weapon."

Dr. Roka looked sharply at Garrus with the first emotion other than fear he had exhibited. He slowly stood up and straightened his back. "You soldier types don't understand. It was near impossible to get research money for my own projects. I was paid handsomely for this and I won't be lectured on medical ethics by god damned turian. I might have ignorance to fall back on, but what is your excuse for releasing the genophage?"

Garrus grabbed the front of Dr. Roka's jacket and pulled him close. "I hope the money was worth it, because you are going to spend a very long time in prison for the murder of thousands of asari."

The doctor started to seize, his eyes rolling back in his head, and foam forming at his mouth. "Spirits, we need a medic in here! We've got another one."

He laid the doctor on the ground, but he knew it was too late. Tredan walked over from the computer console to look at the dying man.

"Already? I thought we had taken enough precautions. Aren't we jamming the signal?"

Garrus rocked back to sit heavily on the ground. "Apparently it wasn't enough. I'm getting damn tired of this shit."

He really was tired of it. For the past seven months the Argo had been hunting Cerberus. Mostly they had only found abandoned facilities, but this time was different. This was an active lab. The information about the facility came through rather unsavory sources, but Captain Victus followed the lead anyway. Apparently even the Shadow Broker did not wish war with the batarians. Of course the Hegemony had long since denied responsibility for the attacks, but the Council of Sisters was still livid. Especially considering that the attacks while much smaller on scale since the Malindra, were still ongoing.

The Argo had only managed to capture three other Cerberus operatives. All three of them had a device at the base of their spine that could be remotely triggered to release a deadly neurotoxin. All three of them were dead. The Argo crew really thought that this time would be different though. This time they had thoroughly jammed transmissions before attempting to take the base, however that apparently was not enough.

_"Commander Tredan? We had a bogie slip through. What's your situation?" _The radio sputtered.

"We've lost Dr. Roka. Repeat, Dr. Roka is dead." Tredan grimly informed the Argo.

_"Understood. Did you get a thorough copy of the computers?"_

Garrus gave Tredan an expectant look. He wasn't sure if they had and honestly he had forgotten about that part of the mission after he had seen Dr. Roka.

"No. The signal must have wiped the databanks as well. We are on our way back now." Commander Tredan motioned for Garrus to stand and they began picking their way back through the moon base. "What is the status of that bogie?"

_"It was a small unmanned craft broadcasting a signal. We were unsure of its intent, but we have taken it offline now."_

"If they were able to send a physical craft to broadcast the kill switch signal, then there has to be somebody close. Very close." Garrus mused as they continued to walk.

"I agree, but I'm sure the Argo has already scanned for ships."

"They can't have jumped to FTL without us picking them up. They must still be here. We can find them."

"Well we'd better hurry then."

By the time they made it back to the Argo, the ship's sensors had picked up the location of the Cerberus craft. It was small. Large enough for only fifty people at the most. It was also stationary. When the Argo neared the vessel it didn't even try and flee. In fact the ship radioed the turians and requested permission to dock. Captain Victus cautiously agreed, however he had a full twenty man contingent with him when the airlock opened.

A small, although to Garrus most humans were small, dark skinned human male was the only person to greet them. Though his physical stature was not imposing the manner in which he held himself was complete arrogance. The man casually took in the turians and seemed to dismiss them and focused on Captain Victus.

"Captain Victus, I have a proposition for you."

"I do not make a habit of negotiating with terrorists." His response was cool and immediate.

"That is a good policy to have. However I am merely an emissary and definitely not a terrorist."

"I believe the council, especially the asari ambassador, would disagree with that claim."

"Perhaps though _I _believe that what I have to offer will change her mind."

Victus was silent for a moment, clearly considering his words and trying to find an answer within them. "And who are you, exactly?"

"I have already stated that I am an ambassador to Pluto."

"Is that supposed to be the new name of the Illusive Man?"

The man visibly twitched at the title. "That is the name others have given him, not one he chose himself. You may call me Charon."

Garrus growled at the man. "How about we call you by your actual name, Ian Rodriguez?"

Ian turned his head quickly to Garrus and a flash of something, fear perhaps, resonated in his eyes. His mouth opened as if to ask a question, but Garrus cut him off. "If you're not a terrorist, then how do you explain Mindoir?"

Ian, because it was definitely Ian, took a half step backwards before catching himself. Victus turned to Garrus and gave him a warning look that was silently commanding him to shut up.

"Why don't you tell me the offer that this … Pluto wishes to make to the council?"

"Right … " Ian cleared his throat while casting one last wary look at the menacing Garrus. "Pluto would like to turn over the locations of the batarian renegades responsible for the tragic attacks of the past few months. Our organization was hired to produce the chemical known as O-E. We take no responsibility for the batarian usage of the drug. This base is in the Terminus Systems and, as such, is not in the jurisdiction of the council. We have stayed perfectly legal. However, once we were sure that it was our compound that was being used; we would be remiss if we did not turn over any information we have on the extremists. I would also ask that any and all personnel be returned to us immediately. As I'm sure you must realize that there was no illegality to our activities in the Terminus System."

"As I'm sure _you_ are aware, all of the staff on the base are dead." Garrus could almost feel the rage thrumming through Victus' subvocals and wondered how the human wasn't sent running by them. Perhaps human ears weren't sensitive enough.

"That is most unfortunate." Ian had responded far too quickly and with a notable lack of remorse for the lives lost.

The captain eventually led the wretched man back to the conference room for the call. Garrus stayed behind to talk to Commander Tredan.

"This can't really be happening."

Tredan looked at the younger turian and nodded his head. "As much as I would like to pretend it isn't, it is."

"But we can't just let them get away with this. They have clearly orchestrated the whole event. The hell of the past six months is their entire fault. What about the men they've installed with kill-switches."

"What proof of their involvement is there? None. We don't have anything. We haven't been able to actually catch them doing anything. The closest we have gotten was that last lab and as soon as we breached it, this guy shows up. Clearly we are getting close to them and they are cutting their losses."

"If we're getting close, then we just have to keep going. We can bring them all in."

Garrus was fervent, but Tredan was sadly shaking his head. "The council will agree to this. I know it doesn't feel just, but if the council doesn't agree then I can promise you that Cerberus will force a batarian conflict. Maybe we will also succeed in wiping the organization out, but war with the Hegemony is too great of a price."

Garrus closed his eyes and rested his head against the cold bulkhead. "So the council gets a few hundred batarian 'extremists' and strings them up for their crimes. The masses feel better, because 'justice' has been done and the real criminals get to fight another day. This is a shallow victory."

Tredan clapped a hand on Garrus' shoulder. "This is the real world of war and politics, every victory is shallow."

"I could use a drink." He groaned.

"I'll buy you one the next time we get shore leave."

* * *

**_July 2171_**

"That top is absolutely scandalous."

"Good. Now is it closer to 'throw that woman over my shoulder and charge for the nearest darkened room' or is it 'screw the darkened room I'm getting her naked right now'?"

Garrus sighed and looked Lia who was adorned in an almost sheer, red, floor length skirt with slits in the sides up to her hip bones and a "shirt" that was more of a scarf that had been cleverly wrapped to barely conceal her perfect waist. It was also made of that same sheer red material. She looked gorgeous, but he did not want to share her beauty with the entire Citadel.

"It is more along the lines of 'I'm not going to let you off the ship, because I don't want to spend the night fending off droves of males'."

Lia purred with pleasure. "Well that's not what I was going for, but I'll take the compliment. Now we need to leave before the club fills up."

"No, seriously you need to change."

Lia placed one hand on her hip and stared him bemused. "Garrus Vakarian just because you outrank me, does not mean you are the boss of me. I look charming and I'm wearing this."

Garrus made a show of grumbling at her, but he knew when he was beat. "Alright we'll go, but I am getting very drunk tonight. Tredan has owed me that drink for over six months now. I think I have accrued some interest on that debt."

They met Tredan outside of the ship in the docking bay. He was dressed in a similar fashion as Garrus was, but where Garrus was wearing black accented with his own Vakarian blue; Tredan was wearing a muted grey with slashes of his dark red. Garrus was suddenly aware of how attractive Tredan was by turian standards and immediately took a defensively possessive stance around Lia.

If Tredan noticed he had the grace not to say anything about it. "There you are. Took you long enough."

"It really has been far too long. Haven't you boys been planning this for almost half a year?" Lia responded while nudging Garrus to stop him from hovering.

"We have." Garrus gave Lia a false wince at the gentle jab to his side. "However, someone decided that Palaven wasn't good enough for a couple of drinks." He looked pointedly at Tredan.

"What can I say? The Citadel has a lot more to offer."

"What can the Citadel possibly have to offer that our home planet doesn't?"

Tredan waited till they were all tucked into the rented aircar before he responded with a wild grin. "Asari."

After Tredan confessed to his love of the blue beauties, Garrus relaxed quite a bit. Even the club that Tredan had picked was blessedly turian-free. Technically he still had to compete with the plethora of asari and even some humans, but as far as he was concerned they had nothing on Garrus Vakarian. He ended up drinking maybe a little too much. Maybe more than just a little.

"Another one!"

"Wait, which mission are we on now?" Tredan was definitely more inebriated than Garrus.

"Uh … shit. Did we drink to the dam break on that elcor colony?"

"I think we drank twice to that one. Though the gravity was so horrible … I could probably drink again."

"What about the tow we gave that hanar ship?" Lia was trying to get in on the game, but she rarely went on the same missions as the other two.

"I wasn't there!" Tredan and Garrus loudly answered together.

"Well it was really interesting. You know their engines are completely different from ours and …"

She was rudely interrupted by both males laying their heads down on the bar and snoring.

"Wait, I got it." Garrus popped his head up and signaled the bartender for another round. "We'll drink to Mindoir."

"That is a good one." Lia admitted raising her filled glass.

"We might even need several drinks to wash that one down." Tredan added with a smirk.

"To Mindoir."


	11. Chapter 11

_Author note: Thank you to everyone who is reading this and commenting on it. You are all lovely and sexy beasts. This chapter is a little bit silly, but it was important to set up some of the people and relationships. I hope you will forgive me as I make a few giant time jumps shortly, but there is so much time to make up. By the way, I am fully aware that Flogging Molly is an American-Irish band, but it was still the closest thing to "Irish" music that Charlie could come up with. I know it might be considered the equivalent of calling the Beastie Boys Jewish music. _

"Are you kidding me? I get off in like ten minutes, Sharisse." Charlie groaned. She had spent the night like she always did twice a week. Walking a stupid beat in the "entertainment" section of lower Shalta Ward.

She could hear the woman cursing in some native asari tongue that her translator didn't pick up, before Sharisse spoke intelligibly. "You were the one who told me to put you in my contacts for times like these."

"And I regret that decision every night that you call me. Fine, fine I'll be there in five minutes, but I'm out for the day after this one."

"I'm leaving too. We both have families to get home to."

"Don't pull that farkakte on me, Sharisse. You don't have a family, you have a John." Charlie quickly closed the line before the woman could deliver her retort. Prostitution may have been legal on the Citadel, but most of C-Sec hated them. They responded slowly to calls from the girls or ignored them as best they could. This had really bothered Charlie, so she started giving out her comm code to the prostitutes. She just wanted to make sure that they were as safe as possible. Unfortunately this policy had not endeared her to her commanding officers and they would stick her with the unsavory patrols. Charlie should have been more offended, but she rather enjoyed the beat and never had any major problems with the citizens she met there.

However she still wanted to get home. Grace was spending the night at Darius' and she had the whole apartment to herself, especially the bed. Just the thought of her big, soft bed made her steps quicken to finish this last drunk patron call.

_Maybe I can just throw them out without getting the drunk tank involved._

_We should be so lucky._

Sharisse was waiting for her at the door when Charlie arrived. The asari really did look angry. Charlie barely suppressed the urge to laugh at the scantily clad woman with her arms crossed and testily tapping foot.

"You know when you put a jacket on; you are supposed to close the front." Charlie gestured to the open front that bared the woman's, aside from the pasties, nude form.

Sharisse huffed at her and dragged Charlie through the empty club to the bar where three very drunk and very loud turians were laughing.

"Alright people let's break it up. You can stay drunk, but you can't do it here."

The female was clearly the most sober of the trio, as she tried hopelessly to shush the two males. "Guys, guys they called the … secur… security." She turned to Charlie and stood up clumsily. That's when Charlie noticed that the female was not wearing a shirt. The female stared at Charlie for a moment and tried several times to say something, but it was like she forgot how to speak in sentences. Eventually she said, "I'm terribly sorry for these buggers behavior. Please don't take us to jail."

Charlie's mouth dropped open. She'd know that beautiful British accent anywhere.

"Cecilia Modius what are you doing here?" Charlie walked over to the turian clad in black and pulled his head off of the bar. "Garrus Vakarian! Are you kidding me? I don't know who the other one is though."

"Rudall Tredan." The grey clad turian announced with an awkward wave of his arms.

Charlie looked all three of the turians over. Tredan and Lia seemed to be about the same level of drunk. Which was very drunk, but able to move around on their own; Garrus, however was well past that point and had passed out already.

Lia had moved to hugging Charlie and was babbling something in a disorienting mix of Turian and English, whatever it was her translator had given up on deciphering it.

"Oh you know each other wonderful. Now if you could kindly leave so I can finish closing up." Sharisse was clearly still pissed and Charlie could understand why now. The turian called Tredan was luridly hanging around her.

"I'm going to assume you don't want to go back to the ship like this and I'm equally as sure you don't want to spend the night in the drunk tank. Right?"

Lia and Tredan quickly shook their heads and Lia spoke up. "We could take Garrus' credit chit and get a room, but I don't think we can find a … hotel right now."

Charlie looked at the snoring form of Garrus and forcibly reminded herself that he once dragged her away from danger. She owed it to him, right? "Fine. You can come home with me. I have a spare room for tonight. Are you two good to walk?"

As a response Tredan stood up slowly and Lia had to help steady him. That's when Charlie realized that she was on her own with the unconscious Garrus. Grunting under the effort, she managed to get him over a shoulder and lift him completely free from the bar. This was not the first time she had had to carry a drunken turian since joining C-Sec, but Garrus was definitely the largest one so far.

With Garrus slung over one shoulder and she made her way to the closest aircar station. The little sign told her the wait would be ten minutes. Charlie looked around for a bench to set Garrus down on, but found none. She was stuck there holding his heavy ass.

"I remember you!" Tredan suddenly shouted from behind Charlie. "You looked different though …"

"Well, yeah. She wasn't in a uniform then." Lia brilliantly deducted.

"Oh yeah that was it! You tried to stab my friend here. Didn't she old buddy?" He reached over and slapped Garrus heavily on the back.

Perhaps it was the odd position he was laying in or it was the shouting and the slap, but some combination of the three jolted Garrus into consciousness and he found himself upside down. With a mighty yell, he flailed on Charlie's shoulder and the two of them hit the ground.

"Big guy, we have got to stop ending up in a painful pile." Charlie grunted the words as her face was pressed against the ground and a very heavy turian was lying on top of her.

"What's going on?" Garrus moved as quickly as he could off of her.

"Well," Charlie groaned as she pulled herself up off the ground and rubbed her face. "You got drunk and I'm here to pour you in bed."

"I have a girlfriend! I'm not sleeping with a human!" Charlie laughed at the sincerity with which he said this. Also how he was crawling backwards, in an attempt to get away from her. Lia's laughter brought some sense to his hazy mind.

"You thought that a human female was dragging you back to her home to take advantage of you?" Tredan managed to say between fits of laughter.

"You haven't met her. She probably could." Lia giggled.

"I think she could do better than him though. No offense, Cecilia."

"Wait a minute." Garrus murmured after silently staring at Charlie. "You're that crazy woman from Mindoir."

"I've been called worse." Charlie shrugged. "Oh look the cab's here. Let's get your drunk ass home, shall we?"

Garrus protested that he could walk, but his legs betrayed him. Charlie ended up half-carrying him all the back to her apartment. By the time they got there, whatever part of his rational mind that had woken up had left again. Her words ended being prophetic as she indeed ended up pouring him into her bed.

"Are you sure you want to give us your bed?" Lia protested.

"Yes, it's fine. Grace is at a friend's house and I'll take her tiny bed. Rudall can sleep on the couch."

"Are you sure? You look so soft and comfortable. I could imagine you were blue, if we turned off the lights …" Tredan was using the wall as a support, but managed to settle a hand on Charlie's lower back.

"You are aware that you are speaking to a C-Sec officer, one that could and probably would kick your ass if you don't remove that hand?"

Rudall almost lost his balance with the laughter that shook him. Charlie rubbed her very tired eyes and counted all the reasons she shouldn't make good on the promise. She came up with three and his ass was safe for the night.

"Good night, all of you!" She announced before shutting herself in Grace's room that was decorated garishly in pinks and purples.

* * *

Garrus' head felt as though it might explode. He pulled himself off of the soft thing he was laying on. _Where am I? _The last thing he coherently recalled was drinking with Tredan and Lia. He looked around the darkened room and tried to put the pieces together. The thing he was laying on was definitely a bed, albeit an extremely uncomfortable one. Garrus might have thought he was in a hotel room, but the room was too cluttered for that. With a groan he pulled himself out of the bed.

A door opened, but the light did not reveal the intruder. Garrus went very still and readied himself for an attack. The breathing patterns of the intruder, told him that this was not a turian and was either an asari or human. The footfalls were light and controlled, so he knew the individual was combat trained.

The person was now very close to where he was hidden in the shadows. Garrus heard a dresser drawer open. There was a light rustling of cloth and then he heard the unmistakable snick of a weapon.

Garrus launched himself at the intruder and managed to lift and pin her to the wall. She felt very odd under his grasp. She was quite strong and flexible, which was causing him great difficulties in keeping a hold on her.

"Let go of me!"

That was definitely a human's voice, which made sense since an asari would have thrown him back with biotics by now. The woman suddenly twisted in a way that was impossible for a turian and kicked his chest solidly with her feet. They both fell to the floor with a crash. Garrus heard running footsteps outside the door and then he was bathed in impossibly bright light which made his head feel even worse.

"What in spirit's name is going on in here?"

Garrus knew that voice. "Cecilia?"

Cecilia reached down and offered him a hand. "You two are impossible. Why does it always have to end with a fight between you?"

Garrus stood up and looked at the human female who was already on her feet. She was only wearing a small white covering around her groin and an equally small white covering around her chest. That left her waist completely bare. She was tall for a human and about average height for a turian female. The woman was not nearly as delicate and beautiful as a turian female though. She was broad shouldered and though she had a narrow waist, it was the only thing about her that was feminine. Somehow even though she was nearly naked, she cut an imposing figure and Garrus had trouble meeting her large grey eyes. Wait, her grey eyes that were framed by curly black hair. Charlie?

"I would like to point out that once again he started it." He immediately recognized that voice. It was Charlie.

"You were suspiciously sneaking through the room and I know I heard a weapon." Garrus huffed indignantly.

"I'm practically naked!" Charlie gestured to her form. "I know that doesn't mean much to you armored turians, but to us soft humans." For some reason she shot a sharp look at Tredan at the word 'soft'. "Besides I am a C-Sec officer and this is my apartment, I think I'm allowed a weapon. Now get out of here so I can put clothes on."

Garrus really wanted to question Charlie about the C-Sec comment, but all three of them were forcibly ejected from the room.

The apartment was small, but comfortable. A quick look down the hall revealed an additional bedroom and a lavatory. Lia led him out to the living room which had a small eat-in kitchen attached to it. Actually every room appeared to be small, except for the large living room. There were quite a few pictures on the walls, but none of them included Charlie. They were all some configuration of a human male and female and quite a few included Grace. It didn't take much deducing to realize that was the girl's parents. The apartment did strike Garrus as odd though. He didn't know Charlie that well, but if he hadn't just heard her confirm that she lived here, Garrus would have never guessed it. She had no personal effects on the walls, no clue that she existed.

* * *

Charlie couldn't help the happy smile on her face as she pulled clothes on. She had guests, real guests. Not the parents of Grace's classmates or the many partners that she had collected or call girls that decided to pay her back by forcing a makeover on her. That last thought sent a shiver down her back. _That_ had been an awkward night. Two obvious hookers showed up at her door unannounced and decided to surprise Charlie with clothes and makeup. It had been hard to explain the situation to Grace, but the girl took it in stride. She was a trooper. Eventually Charlie convinced them to focus their machinations on Grace, who absolutely loved getting attention. When they finally left, Charlie had grimly decided to burn the clothes and most of the makeup, but she kept eyeliner. She had no idea where two asari had learned to style hair, but they were brilliant. Her curls were always impossible to manage, especially in a future where most natural curls had been bred out, but they had used some magical product to make them gorgeous. So the evening had been a success after all.

These guests though were different. They weren't work related acquaintances, they were real. Charlie had not realized how lonely she was until she saw them last night. She had gotten along with them pretty well on the Argo and she dearly hoped she would, at some point, be able to count them as friends.

When she emerged from her room she was wearing her usual loose shorts and shirt, she was also carrying the gun and her cleaning supplies. She rounded the corner to see Garrus comically raise his arms to the air.

"Don't shoot officer!"

"**I've been getting some noise complaints, care to explain yourselves**?" Charlie put on her sternest 'cop voice' she had in her arsenal, which was actually a little terrifying.

Garrus lowered his arms and smiled at her. "That was pretty good. I heard that voice from my dad often enough. So what did you do that you got forced into C-Sec?"

Lia smacked his arm. "Garrus Vakarian, becoming a C-Sec officer is an honor. I know you aren't thrilled about being forced into it, but most _reasonable_ people still consider it an honor."

Charlie laughed at her. She almost lost her balance and fell down, but managed to redirect her descent to land on the sofa. Lia was giving her an indignant stare as Charlie wiped the tears from her eyes. "He's right, Lia. It's a punishment. I am truly sorry for your loss, Garrus."

She gave Garrus a sorrowful look that was usually reserved for funerals. Garrus stared at the ceiling shaking his head. "Thanks."

Lia bounced down into Garrus' lap. "No, I don't understand this. Why are the two of you acting as though it's a death sentence? I, at least, understand Garrus' trepidation, but Charlotte Nacht why are you acting this way. The first human officer has to be an honor."

Charlie sighed heavily and started to take apart her pistol to clean it. "Do you know what C-Sec is mostly comprised of?"

"Turians."

"Not just any turians, Lia. Turians I can handle. Oy vey, most turians love me. However, these turians are old turians." Charlie noted the confused looks on two out of the three turians sitting in her living room. "Let me point something out. The only way to get nominated for a position at C-Sec is for a councilor or ambassador of your species to approve you. This, of course means that most 'rookies' have years and years of experience under their belts. C-Sec tends to be the place for turians, who are too old for military, to start a second career. Hell, Garrus' own father 'the legend' was a war hero before he ever made detective. Naturally, this isn't always the case for the other species, but even they are much older than either of us. You know you are in the wrong field when even the salarians are older than you are, right Garrus?"

Garrus nodded his head slowly. "I should never have told my father I was thinking about joining the Spectres. I just didn't think he had that much pull."

Everyone was silent for a moment and Charlie finished cleaning the pistol and tucked it under her shirt. Tredan broke the silence.

"So, uh, do you play that thing or is it for show?" He gestured to her guitar that had been salvaged from Mindoir.

"Oh yeah I play. It's a muscle; I try to put in several hours of practice a week." Charlie picked up the instrument and lovingly stroked it. It was her favorite item. Playing music always made her feel normal.

"So," Charlie sat back down on the sofa, pointlessly tuning the guitar. Even though it was largely an electronic instrument, she couldn't help herself and always manually tuned it. "Requests?"

The three started talking about some music that Charlie had never heard of, but she dutifully nodded her head along with them. Eventually they settled on a song, that was some odd combination of letters and numbers. "Yeah I really don't do requests, so you guys are stuck listening to whatever I want to play."

The three groaned at her and started to protest, and Charlie was forced to admit that she didn't really know any of their music. "So has anyone here actually listened to Earth music?"

Lia was the only one who responded in the affirmative. "Alright, well since I know both of you men don't speak English, you should turn off your translators. Just trust me. Translators don't work very well with deciphering sung words. You can read the lyrics, if you really want to."

"Wait you're singing?" Garrus had doubt written on his face. "I've never heard human music with words."

"That's because music today has to be homogenized to be interesting to a wide alien audience. It's disgusting drivel." The cries of protest started again. "Okay fine, it's not disgusting drivel. But every generation considers their music to be the best. So humor me please. I would apologize for my voice, but I doubt you will know what the original artist sounded like."

Charlie positioned herself on the couch so she was facing Lia and dove into the song Kiss With A Fist. She sang the lyrics at Lia, mostly because she thought it was funny to do so and also because if she sang to either of the males they might take her seriously. Lia found the whole performance very amusing, but the men seemed to take it differently.

"Spirits, I know why you have so many fingers now." Tredan remarked when she had finished.

"Even your music is violent." Garrus said at the same time.

"Oooh, do another one!" Lia also said simultaneously.

"Ugh, you liked that? I totally butchered it."

All three of them looked to be a different kind of amused. Tredan had spent the whole song watching her fingers play through the chords. Lia was immensely enjoying the entire experience of live music. Garrus, however appeared amused that Charlie possessed this hidden talent. He was watching her very closely and it was a little unnerving.

"Can you do one that is less of this," Tredan mimed strumming, "And more of this?" He mimed picking strings.

Charlie chuckled a little to herself, "Yeah I can do that. Garrus, didn't I hear you say that my music was too 'violent'?"

Garrus smiled smugly at her. "You know something that is _less_ violent? By all means."

"Alright, but I'm not sure you turian types will like too much." Charlie met Garrus smug stare and started playing The General by The Dispatch. Garrus' face was so hilarious at the words of the song that Charlie almost stopped playing. As it was, she missed her cue and had to follow the chorus through a second time.

"The men left a battlefield?" Garrus' face was the very picture of military stoicism. Charlie just grinned at him. "That is outrageous. That General should have had his command pulled. It is not a soldier's job to question orders."

"Even bad orders?" Charlie quietly questioned him.

"Yes, even bad orders. Woman, you have no idea what you are talking about."

Charlie let a smile play at the corners of her mouth while she quietly picked out the chords of the song. "So who would be your superior?"

Garrus gave her a wary look. "Anyone who is further up the meritocracy than me or has a higher rank. Why?"

"So I think I can safely assume your father is higher than you and yet you are still fighting him tooth and claw over your assignment to C-Sec."

"Yes, but I'm still going."

"Fair enough, you are. How about a certain lieutenant who helped an alien civilian break into evidence? I don't seem to recall having to twist your arm, too much."

Garrus sat back in the couch and looked at her and by look we mean he glared. "Fine. It's still not the same thing though."

"I actually agree with you, but it's so much fun to rile you up."

Garrus continued to glare and Charlie continued to beam at him. Finally Lia broke the tension. "Alright how about another one? Do you know any from my parent's country?"

"Uh, I actually don't know where you're from. I'm sorry."

"Oh, well I was raised as a freighter kid, but my dad was from Ireland."

Charlie blinked at Lia. Firstly, she felt bad that she had mistaken her accent so badly, but then she found herself mostly curious at what had to be a fantastic back story. _She did say dad. I really want to know, but I should probably let her tell me._ "I don't actually know any Irish songs off the top of my head."

Lia looked a little distraught, so she added. "I mean I know, at least one band. I mean I don't want to be offensive. It's pretty much the favorite band of every American rugby kid. Hold on let me get the chords." Charlie felt it was very odd to play Flogging Molly for an Irish girl, but Lia was also a turian and the music was over 150 years old. Maybe it was alright to do so.

Charlie got up to grab her omni-glasses from her room. When she came back she had them on and had already pulled up the music for "Float".

"What are those?" Tredan asked, gesturing at her glasses.

Charlie took them off and handed them to the male. "Essentially they are a repurposed omni-tool. I felt that it would be beneficial to have information immediately in front of me, but an omni-tool is very … obvious."

Garrus was passed the device, which looked like two legs of a pair of glasses. "I understand the need, I've been thinking of getting a visor myself. Why didn't you just get one of those?"

"Two reasons. One, they are prohibitively expensive and it was a whole lot cheaper to just buy an older omni-tool and adjust it. Two, I have been known to get punched in the face. I really do not want a piece of glass right by my eye."

"It's actually a poly-resin and …"

"That still sounds painful. Besides this is so much better, check it out." Charlie fixed the two legs firmly behind her ears and made a small hand motion to turn it on. A clear orange bubble formed across her eyes. "Now I have a fantastic VI program that I have written to anticipate my requests. That way it's as unobtrusive as possible. I can question a suspect and have their full record scrolling through my screen. If they try and lie to me, I can double check reports and pull up evidence against them. The best part is that they can't see the screen so they don't know what I'm doing. It's also paired with my actual omni-tool for efficiency. I love it."

"Well I like it."

"Thank you, Lia."

"Actually I may have to rig up something similar. I need my hands free when I'm working in the engine room, but I still need to use an omni-tool. Could you send me the schematics?"

"I can do that, but I warn you I'm not an engineer. Actually if you could send me back any improvements you make, that would be fantastic. I know my design is shoddy at best, but I'm quite proud of the VI."

The rest of the day was relaxing and full of friendly conversation. Charlie was saddened to realize that the three had to leave. Their presence had made her acutely aware of how lonely she was. Even Grace was excited to have the company, when she got home from school. Charlie had never been a social butterfly and she used to go days without contact of any kind, but she always had a core group of friends to fall back on whenever she needed them. In high school it had been her Rugby team and as an adult it had been Justin, Tim, and Justin's band mates.

When they left, Lia gave her a very welcome hug and she got arm clasps from the men. At least Garrus would be coming back in a year to join C-Sec and Lia had talked about moving to the Citadel when her tour was up. Tredan was a career military type, but he promised to stay in touch.

Charlie waved goodbye to them and promised herself that the next year would be better. The first year on the Citadel was mostly training and passing exams. She had finally gotten out on her own. She had a partner, but who that was changed monthly because no one wanted to get stuck with her. Oh, they never said those words exactly, but Charlie knew it was true. She had had been through four such men before. Charlie knew it was because she liked to be involved with the people from the lower wards. She was of the opinion that trust was the best way to maintain order, but the older, and more experienced, officers assured her that too much involvement was also a bad thing. Charlie mostly ignored them, she wasn't breaking any codes and she felt like she was actually helping.


	12. Chapter 12

**August 2172**

"She's a pimp, sir."

Pallin looked exasperated. "You can't prove a damn thing, Nacht. If you could, then you wouldn't need to convince me."

Charlie ran a hand through her black curls, it was a nervous habit, but much less detrimental than her old ones. "I told you I have a girl who will talk. You need to get her into witness protection."

"Nacht, this is not your jurisdiction. You're a beat cop. You walk the beat and you keep the peace, if you happen to stumble across evidence you bring it to a detective." If this was the first time he was having this exact conversation, he might have been a little calmer. However Charlie Nacht was a pain in his cloaca. The fool woman was constantly stretching further than her reach.

"She is not evidence." Charlie was barely keeping her temper in check. "I also brought this issue to Detective Cassius. She informed me that Sharisse is not a credible witness. I informed the 'Detective' that prostitution is a legal activity and Sharisse has no record of illicit drug use. Cassius then called Sharisse a _whore_ to her face. I will have all of you know that Sharrise Aleya is a 250 year old asari and she is many things, but whore is not one of them!" By the end of her recitation Charlie had clearly lost her temper, as she was shouting at the Executor.

"Are you finished, Nacht?" Pallin ground out.

"Not even close, sir. I don't care what the rules are on your planet, this is the Citadel."

"Yes, it is the Citadel and on the Citadel who is in charge of enforcing the rules?"

"Citadel Security, I believe I am still a member of that _illustrious _institution, sir."

Pallin growled a low warning at Charlie, but she held her ground and glared at him. "Nacht, you have been here for two years and do you know why you are still a member?"

Charlie made a small chuffing noise under her breath. "Because the council refuses you every time you try and fire me." She smirked at Pallin's furrowed eyeplates. "I get a letter from Ambassador Goyle every attempt you have made. I believe it has been three times already?"

"I was going to say it's because you are a good cop and the only complaints I have ever had concerning your behavior have come from within the office."

"If I'm such a good cop, then listen to me. Matriarch Ryza is a monster. I can't prove it without Sharisse's testimony, but she is responsible for, at least, two of the asari murders in the past few months."

Pallin looked down at the data pad on the desk. "It says here that those were textbook overdoses. That's not a m-"

"It _is_ murder, sir. Ryza is forcing the ODs on any girls trying to walk away. Trust me I would love to go to the Asari embassy and take this up with them, I have tried you know."

Pallin gave a slightly amused growl. "I am aware of the incident."

Charlie gave him her own growl in response; it was a curious habit she had picked up from working so closely with turians. "Anyways, I tried and they can't prove I called them anything not befitting their station."

"Curious, how nobody can ever prove that."

"I'm not here to prove myself to anyone. I'm here, because I refuse to find anymore dead asari hookers on my patrol. I have a witness now; you just need to get the ball rolling, sir."

"So now they're hookers?"

"Yes, _legal_ hookers."

"Detective Cassius has refused to work with you on this."

Charlie sighed and again ran her hand through her hair. "Fine. I'm just a beat cop, after all. She shouldn't have to work with me, just as long as she does her job … I don't care."

Executor Pallin sat back in his chair, he had already assigned the detective to the case. He really just wanted to see why Nacht had punched the insufferable woman. Pallin really wanted to like Officer Nacht, but she made it damn near impossible to do so. "You know if you'd stop assaulting your superiors maybe I would actually promote you."

Charlie snorted at the executor, "With all due respect, sir, she started it. If I hadn't stepped in, Cassius would be a pile biotic soup right now. Don't lie to me, sir, I could start shitting roses and properly filed reports tomorrow, and I'd still never get the badge."

Pallin actually laughed at Nacht, but not because she was wrong. He wouldn't be able to handle the political shit storm that would blow through if Charlie ever became a Detective.

"I'll get Sharisse Aleya in the witness protection program. Don't worry so much, it's being taken care of."

Charlie gave him a short nod, saluted, and left the office.

"I believe thanking me would actually kill her." Pallin mused to the empty office.

* * *

Charlie was feeling pretty good as she made dinner for Grace and Darius. She had actually made a difference today. Sharisse was safely locked away and eventually Ryza would be off the streets. She opened the oven door to check on the stroganoff. It smelled fantastic. Darius' dinner was a pan seared yolane, which was a dark red fish, over a bed of what looked like short noodles, but was actually shaved trollan. Charlie had never been a great cook, but she was a quick study and Grace had forced her to learn. Darius, Grace's turian friend, had forced her to learn to cook dextro cuisine as well. That boy was staying over more and more often. Charlie wasn't positive, but she had her suspicions that his parents' marriage was failing. She liked them both and really hoped that she was reading too much into the situation.

"Darius. Grace. Come on out here and eat."

The nine-year-olds running feet could be heard long before they were spotted skidding into the kitchen.

"Thank you, Ms. Nacht." Darius said as he took his plate.

"Hey, how come you never call me 'Ms. Nacht'?" She asked Grace, with a playful smirk.

"Because you're Char." The girl gave her a shrug.

"True, but you're welcome Darius. Let me know how it is."

They all sat down at the tiny table in the corner of the kitchen. Darius pronounced the dish 'tasty', but Charlie was well aware that he was far too polite to tell her if it was terrible. _At least, I have yet to outright poison him. So there's that. _The stroganoff was delicious to Charlie and by the way Grace was eating hers, she must have agreed.

"So anyone want to tell me about school?"

The kids looked at each other, before responding in unison. "It's fine."

"That's an informative answer." Charlie gave them both a wry look. "Darius, I seem to remember that math was your favorite subject. How's that going?"

Darius gave a half-hearted shrug. "It is fine, I guess."

Grace piped up, "He likes history now."

"Ooh, I also like history. What are you two studying?" Charlie said in between bite.

"We're studying human history. I think Darius only likes it, because _Marta_ likes it."

This brought about a verse of "No, I don't like girls. Especially not human ones." from Darius that was backed up by a chorus of "Darius likes girls" sung by Grace; Charlie desperately tried to keep from laughing, because it would only encourage them. She failed miserably and the two children continued to harass each other.

A beeping from her omni-tool brought her out of her laughter and Charlie quickly left the room to answer the call. It was work.

"This is Nacht."

"Officer Nacht we have a code black with your name attached to it. We are forwarding the address now."

"Can I get a little more information first?"

"I'm sorry there isn't any more at this time."

The salarian officer ended the call and Charlie was forced to get quickly dressed. The kids had finished eating and a call to Darius' parents let her drop them both off. She really hated to bail on them, but technically she was always on-call.

Charlie was very nervous about responding to the call. She made her way through the ward with leaden feet. Code black meant that there was a body and the only reason her name would be attached to the call was if she knew the person. That meant it was either one of the half a dozen people she actually knew on the Citadel or it was a duct rat or it was a prostitute.

A small group of people had gathered around the quarantined alley way when she arrived. There weren't any reporters which meant it wasn't a personal friend, but that didn't help her feeling of dread. If it was another kid, Charlie would lose it. She had seen too many of them dead. She tried to help them, but there was only so much she could do. If it was another one of Ryza's prostitutes she would personally oversee Sharisse's protection detail. Charlie didn't care how many strings needed to be pulled.

Charlie tried to make her way to the body when Detective Cassius stepped in front of her. "Nacht, I don't know why you are here, but you are way out of line."

Charlie stared down at the small turian female. "I was called here by dispatch. Cassius, you better tell me what's going on."

"I don't have to tell you shit."

Charlie's hand itched to hit Cassius again. In her heart she knew why she was here, but she wanted Cassius to say something reprehensible to give her a reason to kick the crap out of her.

"Why are you here and don't give me any farkakte."

"That whore witness of yours OD'd." It was the smug way that Cassius said it. It was exactly the way that Charlie imagined her saying it. Her next move would be to the rip that smug face off of the bitch's body. Charlie had planned it. But when Cassius actually said the words, it didn't matter anymore. Sharisse was dead. Somehow Ryza got to her and did what Charlie had feared. Sharisse who was her friend, who had done her hair and tried to make her go out and have fun. Who had come over twice and watched Grace for her. One of her only friends left in this stupid universe, and she was dead. A victim of trying to do the right thing, a victim of honor. Sharisse had never been one of Ryza's girls; she was just tired of the dead women piling up. She wouldn't be dead right now, with her name being spat on, if Charlie hadn't forced her to speak up.

Charlie stood there shaking not with rage, like Detective Cassius thought, but with grief. "She was in protective custody." Charlie's voice wavered just above a whisper.

"She was." The voice that was speaking now was much deeper and older. Pallin motioned for Cassius to leave. "The officers assigned to her detail said they didn't see her leave the building."

"Then they're lying."

As soon as Cassius departed, Charlie made her way to the black plastic sheet hiding the body. She pulled back the corner of it, despite the protests from the coroner, and looked at Sharisse's face. Sharisse had always been a dark purple color, but this face was pale … too pale. There was foam at the mouth and when Charlie opened the eyes they were completely bloodshot. There was a little trickle of blood slipping from a tear duct.

"Red sand. Looks like they fucking poured it her eyes." The voice that spoke these words didn't sound like Charlie. The syllables were flat and dead.

Pallin made a disgusted noise of agreement behind her. "They're not even trying to make it look like an accidental overdose anymore."

"No. This was a statement. Tell me that her written testimony was enough."

She could hear the Executor shuffling nervously behind her, so she stood up and looked him in the eyes for the first time that night. Charlie had thought about hitting Pallin in the past, but had never seriously considered it till right then.

He must have sensed her thoughts, because he finally spoke up. "Her testimony has been wiped."

Charlie's body jerked back like she had been slapped. "Are you kidding me? Tell me that you are kidding me. Tell me that this is horribly inappropriate joke to be had in front of the _dead _woman who just gave her life for nothing. If you can't tell me that, then tell me you know which one of the _illustrious_ C-Sec officers did this."

Pallin glared at Charlie and shook his head.

"God damn it all, Pallin! Did they get the recording of the room too?"

Pallin nodded his head.

"I was there. Detective Cassius was there too. Surely, we can …"

"You know that that doesn't count as viable testimony."

"Son of a bitch. I need to sit down and smoke a carton of Camels." Charlie kicked the wall and then slid down the filthy side of it to the even filthier floor. She held her head in her hands and it took a second for her to recognize the light blue cylinder being thrust in front of her.

"I don't have your brand, but I can give you an Ignis."

Charlie barely hesitated before sticking the paper wrapped tube between her lips. "Got a light?"

Pallin lit her cigarette before lighting his own and leaning against the wall. Charlie savored the sweet taste, it was nothing like her old menthols. This tasted of cinnamon and spices, like a clove, but Charlie had always hated cloves. This tasted like what she had always thought cloves should taste like. There was still the strong hit of whatever kind of tobacco this was, but it was flavored with sweetness. Charlie took long drags both savoring the taste and enjoying the slightly dizzying effect of the new drug.

"I assume Cassius didn't take a personal recording?" She asked after a while.

"No, to be honest I was kind of hoping that a certain paranoid cop I know had done that."

Charlie almost responded with a no, but then she remembered that her glasses are set to record by default.

"Sir, give me a moment. I might have something."

She quickly shuffled through the day's events, quietly praying that she had been wearing them. When Sharisse's face came up in the video, Charlie almost wept.

"Executor Pallin, I have the evidence. I'm sending you a copy now and, with your permission, I'm forwarding one to every member of C-Sec. They can't erase them all."

Pallin appeared to consider this for a second. "Do it, but encrypt the message so they can't play it. Use my codes."

"Done."

"Good work, Nacht. Go home and get some rest. We'll bring this in tomorrow. Do you want in on the arrest?"

Charlie thought about it. She really did want to be there when Matriarch Ryza was brought in, but it really was not her place. Charlie was just an officer. She wasn't there for the glory and didn't give a damn which detective got the praise. Well she almost didn't care.

"No, sir. It's not my place. I do have one request though."

"Don't you worry, Detective Cassius will not get the arrest. I'll bring her in myself. I'll make a proper political stink over it too. She will not be extradited to asari space; I'll make sure of it."

Charlie took another cinnamon sweet drag. "Thank you, sir. I'm sure Sharisse would have appreciated it."

"Go home and take the next couple of days off. You need it."

"Is that an order, sir?"

"Does it have to be?"

* * *

Charlie wasn't sure what Mya's parents thought when she asked them if they could watch Grace for a couple days. Mya's father was a human and Charlie had always thought he had looked down on her as a guardian. She was pretty sure Mya's mother, Rychana, understood why she needed a few days alone. Especially after the asari thanked her, but failed to mention what the thanks was for. Charlie ignored most of this though and focused on Grace.

"I'm not leaving you, ok?"

Grace gave her a shrug.

"Grace, I know I'm gone a lot for work and this is a work thing."

Grace looked up at Rychana and leaned close to Charlie's ear and whispered. "Is this because that asari lady died?"

Charlie placed her hands on Grace's shoulders looked at her questioningly.

"I saw it on the news."

Charlie sighed heavily. "She was a friend, a really good friend, and I need some time alone if that's alright. I should have just told you. I forget how grown up you are, sometimes."

Grace smiled at Charlie and gave her a hug. "It's ok, I forgive you. I wanted to have a sleepover at Mya's house anyways. Maybe Darius can come over?" Grace looked up questioningly at Rychana, who nodded.

After Grace and Mya had escaped to a back room, Rychana caught Charlie as she was leaving.

"She's really is more grown up than she should be."

"I know, I'm doing the best I can. Grace lost her parents too young, I can't change that." Charlie was speaking defensively out of habit, whenever she was questioned about Grace. She had had her for over two years now and it felt like she was still dodging attacks.

"No, you misunderstand me. I'm sorry. I meant that in a good way." She continued after noting Charlie's confusion. "Grace is a very calm child. She thinks about her words before she speaks them. This is unusual for a girl so young and yet she has been this way since I met her. I have … sensed something in her. You may want to have her checked for any dormant biotic potential."

Charlie started to shake her head. "No, that's not possible. Grace was conceived, carried, and born on Mindoir. That planet does not have any element zero and as far as I am aware there have been no industrial accidents there. I'll check, but I feel fairly confident in that. To the best of my knowledge, there is no way that Grace has any biotic potential. She's just Grace and full of empathy."

Rychana looked skeptical, but bowed her head to head to Charlie's explanation. "Take care, Ms. Nacht, and thank you again. I know that it was you who pressed the issue."

It was Charlie's turn to look skeptical.

"I'm a receptionist at the asari embassy."

Charlie blushed a deep red, remembering that loud and unfortunate incident. "Sorry about that desk."

Rychana laughed, it was a musical sound, and Charlie quickly left.

* * *

Charlie stood in her room. She was wearing a pair of jeans, they had been very hard to find and she paid far too much for the familiar comfort, a spaghetti strap tight black shirt, and a pair of boots. She scrounged around in the drawer until she found the only earrings she owned. They were some kind of blue pearl that Sharisse had given her. Charlie looked at the tangled excuse of a hairstyle and realized it was beyond help. She sighed, then slipped her knife in its holster hidden at her back, fitted her pistol at her thigh and slipped a small concealed pistol in her boot. She technically did not a permit for that one, but she was a C-Sec officer and the rules regarding weapons were a little loose. Fully armed, she grabbed a long jacket and headed out the door.

Charlie told herself that she didn't know where she was going, but that was a lie. She was going to get incredibly drunk and go home with a stranger. She needed or wanted, she wasn't sure which and it didn't matter, to get laid. It had been a very long time since Justin and while Charlie was not the kind of person to drown her sorrows in alcohol and a warm body, it had been known to happen. Once … maybe twice .. alright it had happened quite a bit. Actually the last time she did this exact thing, Justin had found her and taken her home. She wasn't holding out hope for a repeat performance on his part, but if there was enough alcohol involved she could at least pretend it was Justin. A sigh escaped her lips, Justin had been tall, broad, bearded, and always had a smile. She missed his smile.

Charlie was just so tired of being alone.


	13. Chapter 13

Garrus Vakarian walked out of the terminal. Security was incredibly lax. He was carrying a pistol in his pocket and a rifle in his bag and no one even stopped to check his papers. Pathetic. Garrus dropped his luggage off at his apartment. His father had tried to give him an apartment, but he firmly turned it down. Instead he took a dingy one room flat which was the best he could afford.

Garrus wasn't sure what to do now as he had a couple of days before C-Sec training started. He sent a message to Charlie, that girl always responded quickly and he was sure that she would want to do something. Garrus really wished Lia was here. She always knew something to do, but she was stuck on the Argo. Cecilia had gotten an offer to work for an engineering firm on the Citadel and Garrus was really hoping she would take it. Then they could get properly attached and she could take his colony markings. His father wouldn't approve, but that didn't matter.

_Why isn't Charlie responding?_

If she was working then she would have responded immediately and if she wasn't working well it was still fairly early, she should still be awake. Garrus knew that that dingy asari club, Valhalla, was on Charlie's normal route. It seemed like as good a place as any to get a drink and they had a decent turian whiskey.

There was loud music coming from the club as he neared; that wasn't particularly odd, what was odd was that it was not any kind of music he had heard before. There was a male's voice speaking quickly through the cacophony of sound and his translator helpfully informed him that it was English. The singer must have been using some kind of colloquial slang, because every third word couldn't be translated.

When he walked into the bar, it was almost empty. There were a few asari wandering around but they weren't scantily clad and instead were dressed completely in white. Garrus didn't know much about asari culture, but he seemed to recall that white was a mourning color for them. A loud female voice drew his attention to the bar. A woman was sitting on a bar stool and was practically fawning over a large bearded man.

"Hey DJ play me some Jamie T! I need some Sticks N' Stones."

Garrus was not sure of a lot of things in that moment. Who that man was, what a DJ was, and what a Jamie T was; to name a few. He was sure of two things though. That the woman at the bar was Charlotte Nacht and she was incredibly drunk. Garrus made his way over to the her.

"So this song is like really awesome, but you need to listen to the lyrics. 'It's the only place but home I feel relaxed enough to crap. I know it sounds crude, but there's something in that.' I love this British bastard. I used to listen to him all the time."

Garrus had never heard Charlie speak like this before. It was like she was parodying her own voice. Charlie always spoke with her hands, but right now it was ludicrous how much she was using them. The way the man was leering at Charlie disgusted Garrus. He knew it wasn't his place to get involved, but surely she would thank him when she was sober.

He rested a hand on her shoulder. "Charlie."

"Oy gevalt, I swear to god if that is Pallin, I will rip off your talons and shove them so far up your cloaca they'll be permanently lodged in your stomach."

"The crazy bitch has got a mouth on her." The drunk was really pissing off Garrus. He was going to do something about it when the bartender walked up to the man.

"**Leave**." Garrus had never in all of his years of the military heard so much force put into one word. If that command had been directed at him, he would have been halfway to his apartment before he came to his senses. The human male did not realize this though.

"No, I'm staying here. This bitch wants some and I'm giving it to her. Isn't that right, sweetie?"

"What?" Charlie was roused from her thoughts and was clearly disoriented. "Oh yes beard man. Yeah leave him alone Sharisse, I'm getting some of _that_ tonight."

The asari clearly faltered during Charlie's speech, but Garrus wasn't exactly sure why. He _was_ sure that this man was leaving. Now.

"I believe the lady said to leave. I agree with her. Go." Garrus allowed all of his disgust show in his dual tones.

The man still refused to leave and it took Garrus and the bartender forcibly evicting him. The bartender then locked the doors behind him.

"What's going on?" Garrus asked the asari, thoroughly confused.

"Do you actually know her?" The asari asked, ignoring the question.

"Charlie? Yeah I know her."

"Are you looking to fuck her?" The asari asked baldly.

"What, no!" The idea was revolting even if Charlie had been sober, which she clearly was not. "I have a mate."

"Good. If you want to know, ask her. It's not my story to tell."

Garrus was still confused, but so far this was the only encounter he had had with Charlie that didn't start with them attacking each other. So he was cautious as approached the bar and took the seat recently vacated.

"Charlie, are you alright?"

Charlie who had been humming along with the song stopped and stared at Garrus. "Oh it's Garrus Vakarian, my favorite fictional character."

"Why are you here? What happened?"

"Well you would have to ask chief-pain-in-my-ass Pallin. He lied and let that bitch go. Said that he was going to keep her and punish her. He didn't. Saw it on the tele. Isn't that right Sharisse?"

Garrus kept quiet as none of this still made any sense.

Charlie looked down into her glass and furrowed her face. "Oh, that's right _that_ hooker is dead. How many does that make? I can't remember, it's not like I can do anything about it. I mean I tried, I really did. I did everything. Fucking everything."

The bartender came over placed a hand on Charlie's shoulder and gave her a light squeeze. "There are kids that I can't save. I tried there too. Do you remember, Nexxia? Do you remember how I tried with them? Couldn't get them to stay in the home. Then the hookers kept dying, I was going to save them. I thought that this time it would be different. I mean there are laws that protect them, right? What they do is legal."

Garrus nodded his head.

"I need a light."

"What?"

In response, Charlie put a turian cigarette between her lips.

"Those aren't for humans. I can get you a human one if you like." Nexxia was shaking her head, as if she had already had this conversation.

"Don't have the farkakte allergy do I? 'Sides I like these better. Give me some fire, fictional squad member."

Garrus shook his head, reached over to Charlie and flipped the backwards cigarette and lit the proper end. "Do you want to finish the story?"

Charlie frowned at him as she took a drag. "Where was I?"

"You were telling me how you were going to save the prostitutes and how that was legal."

"I think they prefer 'hookers', right Nexxia?"

Nexxia sat down next to Charlie and stole a drag off her cigarette. "I wouldn't know. I'm just a bartender."

Charlie laughed a bitter sound. "Well Garrus Vakarian, turian sniper extraordinaire, I was going to save all of the asari hookers. I found out who was killing them. All I had to do was convince someone to talk. It wasn't even hard. I just asked her. Sharisse said yes, of course she did, she _trusted_ me. Can you guess what happened next? I don't know if you saw the news, but it made all of the headlines. 'Asari Matriarch, Pimpin' and Killin' Hookers'"

Garrus could visibly see the pain and guilt in Charlie's every word and motion. It was enough to make bile rise in his throat. He wanted to maim every individual responsible for the way she was feeling. He had never felt such a strong urge to protect someone before and he wasn't sure why he was feeling it now. He didn't really know Charlie that well, but she always laughing and joking. To see her use those same tactics in such a bitter and cruel way, felt fundamentally flawed and wrong.

"One last thing had to happen first, though, and no one even cares about it. That's the kicker. The last act of vengeance that bitch had in her, was to murder Sharisse. Sweet Sharisse. A victim of honor. Oh wait, there is one more thing. You see I had the evidence to convict, Matriarch Ryza. Fucker Pallin promises me that he will make sure the bitch pays. Says that he'll personally make sure that she doesn't get sent to Thessia. That she'll actually pay for her damn crimes. I want you to guess what happened next."

Garrus shook his head.

"I said I want you guess, Garrus. Play the game, that's all it is." Charlie laughed the twisted sound again.

"She's being sent back to Thessia."

"Ding ding ding, we have winner folks."

Charlie paused and tried to pour another shot from the bottle on the counter, but couldn't quite figure out how to do that. Nexxia helped her out and poured them both a drink.

"Do you really think she needs more to drink?" Garrus asked seriously.

Both women frowned at him and proceeded to knock back the liquor.

"I'm drinking for more than just Sharisse." Charlie lit another cigarette with the lighter Garrus had left on the counter. When she realized that she now had two lit cigarettes she offered one of them to Nexxia, who turned it down. Charlie then forced Garrus to take the other one, surprising even himself, he took it.

"Like I was saying, I'm drinking for more souls than Sharisse. Do you know how often people die around me? I'd tell you to watch out, but you're a fictional character so you don't have to worry much. So the last people to die around me, besides the nameless children and the hookers, was the entire colony of Mindoir. Sometimes I try and remember all of their names, but I can't quite get them all. I could have saved them. If I had ignored Ethan, I might have been able to fend off the attack with him. I'm damn good. I'm better now, maybe I wasn't good enough then. I don't know. I'd be dead anyways. Before the Mindoir attack, there was Cody. I definitely fucked up with him. I saw that thing in the water. I knew it was there. He didn't and because I didn't tell him; he died. At least, then I got to shoot that fucker dead."

"Charlie, stop."

"No, I'm not done. I have been to far too many funerals and I'm done, Garrus. I'm done with being the survivor, I'm done with being the one who didn't save everyone, the careless one, the failure. Every single time, I just needed to try a little bit harder. Push the rules a little bit further. I could have stayed with Sharisse last night, but I went home to Grace instead."

"Charlie, stop. This isn't your fault."

"Schtup ir. What do you know?"

"I know that if there was anything you could have done you would have done it. If you want to sit here and berate yourself then fine do it. But you're not helping anyone right now and I didn't know Sharisse or Ethan or Cody, but they wouldn't want you here doing this to yourself."

Charlie sat there for a while, idly twirling the lit cigarette around her fingers.

"I wasn't supposed to come here and talk." She mumbled after a while.

"Why did you come here then?"

She looked at Garrus and huffed a laugh. "I was going to get very drunk and break my four year dry spell."

Garrus gave her a confused look and Nexxia said, "Holy shit, it's been four years since you've gotten laid."

"Yes, ma'am. It might have been only three. Either one is far too long."

Garrus gave Nexxia a pointed questioning look.

The asari raised her hands. "Me? No, I know I don't have the right equipment for Nacht. If you know what I mean."

Charlie let loose her first genuine peal of laughter Garrus had heard that night. "Oh I'm sorry, Nexxia. You're very pretty, but I like … well … you know." She held two of her hands apart and gave Garrus a knowing look and waggled her eyebrows.

Garrus chuckled along with her and spread her hands even farther apart.

"No. Fucking. Way." Charlie's mouth hung open in shock.

"What? That's average for a turian of my height."

"Lia's a lucky lady, that's all I'm saying. Also I did _not_ need to know that particular piece of information about all of the turian males I work with."

All three of them laughed then and Charlie pulled out her omni-tool to pay. Nexxia stopped her and shook her head. "This one is on me, love. Go home and get some rest."

Charlie moved to stand up off of the stool and would have fallen to the ground if Nexxia and Garrus hadn't been quick enough to catch her. Her face contorted into a pained expression as she realized her predicament.

"Garrus, I'm kind of alone right now and if I had anyone else to call I would, but … can you help me home?"

Garrus wasn't sure if he had ever heard a more ridiculous request. Of course he was going to help her home. He had originally gone looking for Charlie, leaving her alone at a bar was crazy. He was going to say as much, but the tone of vulnerability struck him and instead he slipped her arm over his shoulder and walked her towards the door. She was a lot more unsteady than he had previously thought. Nexxia caught up with him.

"I know she seems meek right now, but you should know that she still has a large knife at her back and I'm pretty sure she is still carrying a small pistol in her boot. Here is her C-Sec issue." Nexxia was whispering and was clearly trying to avoid Charlie.

"She's pretty drunk, I doubt she's much of a threat." Garrus offered Nexxia a wry grin as he took the pistol.

"I put nothing past her. I saw her tackle a krogan to the ground once; the girl didn't even use a weapon. I mean he was a little drunk, but that just makes them meaner."

Garrus gave her a disbelieving smirk, Nexxia raised her hands and nodded her head. "Seriously. He comes in all the time asking about her."

Garrus just shook his head and continued to the door. Before they were completely out, he heard Nexxia say behind him, "Take care of that girl, Vakarian. If anything happens to her we will find you."

He glanced behind him to see six asari watching them leave.

By the time they made it back to Charlie's apartment building, she had passed out. Garrus was stuck carrying her upstairs. She was a little heavier than he thought she would be, but then again humans have those solid bones. During the trip up the elevator she adjusted herself and put her arms around his neck, muttering something about someone named Justin.

The elevator door opened to reveal a turian male with Odessa colony markings. He was shorter than Garrus, but broader across the chest. He was also growling at him.

"She is a highly respected C-Sec officer. What are you doing with her?" Protective anger was thrumming through the strange male's subvocals.

"I'm putting her to bed. Who are you?"

"I am Tevan Clodius and I am a friend. I know she had hard day, but that does not excuse you taking advantage of her." Tevan moved as to take Charlie away from Garrus.

Garrus took a step backwards into the elevator. "I don't think you understand. I am also her friend and that's why I'm taking her to bed. I don't know you, so back off." Garrus heard the protection echoed in his own voice, but didn't care.

"What's going on?" A sleepy voice coming from his arms asked.

"Garrus? Oh shit, Tevan. Can you put me down, Garrus?" Charlie squirmed.

"Can you stand?"

"Guess we'll find out." Charlie could stand, but barely; when she stumbled both Garrus and Tevan reached out to steady her.

"Look, Tevan, I don't know what this looks like, but whatever that is … it isn't that." Charlie made a face like she was trying to comprehend her own choice of words, then shook her head and continued. "Garrus is just helping me home. I'm not drunk … okay I'm a little drunk. Don't worry Grace isn't home. I left her with Mya. Well Mya's parents, that is. I'm not a bad guardian. She's safe, I promise."

Tevan put a hand on his face and Garrus was pretty sure he was attempting to hold in laughter. "I know, I know. You're an excellent guardian. Just go to bed. I was just making sure that you were alright."

"I'm fine." Charlie gave a helpful grin and waited for Tevan to go back to his apartment door, before turning back to Garrus. "I can't walk. You need to carry me."

Garrus gave her a mock groan and rolled his eyes.

"Hey, I carried your drunken ass before and you're a lot heavier than I am."

Garrus carried Charlie to her room and put her in bed. He still wasn't sure exactly what was going on with the troubled woman, but he was sure that she was definitely not alone.


	14. Chapter 14

Charlie woke up four hours later at precisely 0600. She lamented the fact that her internal clock would not take a morning off for a hangover. Charlie checked the other side of the bed and confirmed that she was indeed alone. She wasn't sure how she felt about that, but admitted to herself that it was probably for the best. Making her way over to the bathroom for some medicine, she considered the past night.

The night had started with Charlie taking a cab to a part of the wards where no one knew her. She had thought that she would just get drunk alone, meet a stranger, and get a hotel room. The bar Charlie ended up in was not one that she really knew or remembered, but what had happened there? She knew it was something bad. _Shit. _Charlie froze while staring at her reflection.

_You remember now. You saw that vid of Pallin sending Matriarch Ryza to Thessia. _

_Did I punch a vid screen?_

Charlie looked down at her knuckles. They were tender and feint white lines ran across them, but they were healed.

_Someone patched me up? Who?_

_Nexxia._

Charlie groaned at the fuzzy memory coming to the forefront of her mind. She had indeed started by breaking the vid screen, which a couple of patrons were not happy about. There were two turian males and a human man, Charlie couldn't remember who started the fight, but she knew that she had gladly welcomed it. She had held her own, but she was already too drunk at the time. They were slowly closing in on her.

Charlie moved into the bedroom and quickly found her guns. She sighed in relief when she saw they had not been fired. _I wasn't insane, at least._

She tried to remember more of the night, but could only get brief glimpses of a blue light pulling her from the bar fight and then Nexxia was there. Charlie was fairly certain they ended up at Valhalla, but she definitely did not know how she ended up home.

The pain killers were starting to kick in and Charlie decided that the best thing for her was to get some food and water. Maybe she would hit the gym later; it was her day with her trainer, Waterby. Charlie changed out of her dirty clothes and put on a loose shirt and a pair of shorts.

There was a light coming from the kitchen and there were sounds of someone moving things around in the cupboard. Charlie lamented leaving her weapons in the room, but it was too late to go back now. Cautiously peering around the corner, she saw a very tall turian standing with his back to her. Charlie was not a very stealthy person, but she tried to sneak up on the stranger. The turian stopped and turned around and faced her before she had taken two steps.

"Garrus! What the hell are you doing here?"

Garrus folded his arms and leaned casually against the counter. "Please tell me that you weren't trying to sneak up on me. That was terrible."

Charlie huffed at him. "You didn't answer my question."

"I found you at Val Halla and I took you home."

Charlie blanched. She had not wanted anyone to see her weak like that. "Oh … well I didn't need the help. I'm sure I was fine."

Garrus had not been expecting Charlie's undying gratitude for his aid, but he had at least expected something. Definitely not denial of the incident. "You were not fine. You were drunk and angry. I had to carry you home."

Charlie gave him a dangerous warning look. "Thank you for your help, I preferred to be left alone. I didn't want to be brought home in that condition. If someone had seen me …"

Garrus quickly looked away from Charlie and stared at the blank portion of the wall.

"Who saw me?" Charlie was speaking in the low voice that was reserved for real anger. If Charlie was screaming then it wasn't cause to worry, but the quieter she got … the more danger you were in.

"A turian that you called Tevan."

"Son of a bitch." Charlie heavily sat down on the counter behind her.

"I don't think you have to worry about him. He only seemed … concerned about you."

"Oh concerned about me, was he? He's the father of Grace's best friend and now he thinks that I'm an alcoholic cop who brings home strange turians! Do you know how long it took for him to trust me? I had to kick his ass on the mat before he even let Darius come over." Charlie was flustered and her migraine was threatening to blind her once more.

Garrus gave her an odd look out of the corner of his eye and looked like he was about to ask her something, but changed his mind and asked something else. "You told me about what happened, last night. If you need someone to talk to, Charlie, I'm here."

Charlie scowled at him. "If I told you all about it, then there is nothing left to say. Leave me alone. I don't need someone to rescue me." She noted the look of hurt on Garrus' face and shook her head.

"I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. I know you are just trying to help." Charlie raised a hand to cover her eyes and took a breath. "Let's start over again. What are you doing in my kitchen?"

Garrus gave a small shrug. "I thought I'd see if there was something to eat. I've got orientation in two hours and I thought I smelled some dextro food in here."

Charlie forced a small smile to come to her face. "Is that today, damn; I'm supposed to be there. Scoot out of here and I'll make you something to eat."

"I thought you said you had a few days off. Why would they want you to come in for orientation?" Garrus asked as he traded places with Charlie.

Charlie turned and gave him an evil smirk. "Let's just say I have to be there. I'm a … scare tactic for the new recruits."

"What in the spirits does that mean?"

She tapped one finger on her chin, "Are you still one of the top hand-to-hand specialists?"

"Yes."

"Then you'll find out."

Garrus wasn't sure what to make of this comment and so he opted for watching Charlie move around the kitchen cooking some kind of fish, which smelled amazing.

"Why did you learn to cook dextro?"

Charlie missed the tone in Garrus' voice. "It helps to make friends with my turian neighbors."

"Oh … like Tevan?" Garrus' voice was too innocent this time and Charlie caught it.

"Garrus, he's married!"

He threw his hands in the air and surrendered the point. Garrus waited till Charlie had turned back to cooking before adding, "I didn't hear you say no."

Charlie threw some kind of human fruit at him and Garrus fell off the counter laughing.

* * *

Garrus had a nice morning with Charlie, though he noted that she never brought up the past night or the events leading up to it again. She seemed content to pretend that they had never happened. He didn't bring them up either, but he made a mental note to keep an eye on her. The food had been as delicious as it had smelled and Garrus was surprised Charlie had mastered cooking dextro. 'Though', he thought as he reveled in the flavor, 'she doesn't strike me as a person who does something half-way.'

The rest of the day was spent sitting in boring lectures and he didn't see Charlie again until that afternoon. His orientation group, which consisted of fifteen turians, three asari, one salarian, and one human male, had just entered a large gymnasium and were told that they would be sparring with each other.

There were quite a few officers milling about the room and it appeared that some betting was being made on the outcomes. Garrus glanced around for Charlie, but didn't see her. It was odd, because she had definitely said she would be here. It wasn't long before they were split into partners.

Garrus was first matched with a turian female. She was good, quite good actually, but he was used to a much better partner in Cecilia and the female tapped out before she had landed more than a couple of blows. The next couple of matches went about the same. The opponents were solid fighters, but they used very predictable patterns. They were also much older than Garrus. It wasn't like they were his father's age, but the youngest of them were in their thirties and Garrus was only twenty and Garrus was very good.

After the last fight, which was surprisingly against the human male called Bailey, Garrus was feeling the glow of victory. He liked being the best and he was definitely the best at this. He wasn't even feeling tired yet; he felt like he could go a few more rounds with a really good partner. Again, he lamented Lia being so far away.

"Well done. We have a winner, Garrus Vakarian. Now we have a treat for you boys. Since you are the best among this lousy group of recruits, you get to fight _our_ reigning champion. This is what it is like to face a human and let it be lesson for all of you." The older turian gave a glare to all of the recruits.

"Well that's not fair, Dysus. Are you calling me average?" Garrus knew that voice and he smirked with confidence. He could take Charlie. It's true that she managed to get the upper hand on him the one time that he had faced her, but she was in his world now. On the sparring mat, he felt powerful and invincible.

"Charlie." Garrus greeted her with a smile when she appeared. She was wearing a large shirt and some tight black shorts.

"Officer Nacht, recruit." She gave him an arrogant smirk. Charlie took off the loose shirt and threw it casually to the ground. She was wearing just a small piece of tight fabric around her chest now. Spirits, she looked so frail with so much skin showing. Garrus almost averted his eyes to keep from seeing her exposed waist, but then he remembered that humans didn't have the same modesty regarding it and all of the bits that they found indecent on a body were covered.

"As I didn't get a warm up round, is it ok if I stretch, Dysus?"

"I believe that's fair, officer."

The whole conversation had the feel of a practiced routine. From Charlie's innocent tone to Dysus' begrudging reluctance to concede; Garrus had never heard Charlie use any tone even close to innocent. He was beginning to feel like he was being played. That feeling was confirmed when Charlie began her 'stretches'.

There were mumbles from the entire group of recruits at her bending. Spirits, the woman could bend over backwards, touch the floor, and then lift her body with only her arms. Turians did not bend that way at all. When Charlie did a full side split and started to stretch down to her feet; all of the recruits, except the three asari, took a step backwards and gasped. The telling part was that none of the officers on the other side of the room looked impressed and instead they were chuckling and smiling at the recruit's reactions. Yes, Garrus decided, he was most definitely getting played. Charlie's stretching was quickly over with and it appeared to have been carefully crafted to show off the most alien parts of her physiology.

Charlie finished and started to wrap her hands and feet with some white cloth. Then she popped up off the ground and winked at him before taking a stance in front of Garrus.

"Don't worry; I won't embarrass you too much."

"Officer Nacht, you're here to do exactly that." Dysus countered.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that Garrus." Then she had the teeth to wink at him again.

Garrus was properly riled up at the prospect of beating Charlie. They had brought her out and paraded her about as if she was some kind of champion. _ Well that was about to change and it will just eat at her that I was the one to bring her down a peg. _

Garrus sized her up as they did their slow circles around each other. Charlie was definitely flexible, even more so than Lia, so he had to be wary of her getting too close. She was probably also very fast, though there was no way she was as fast as he was. Garrus didn't know much about human physiques, but he knew that she was very tall for her species and had a high leg to torso ratio. That meant that Charlie would focus on kicks more. He knew from experience that she was strong, but turians were much stronger than humans and he doubted that Charlie would have the arm strength to really damage him. Bailey hits had hurt, but his arm width was easily double that of Charlie's.

Confident with his assessment of Charlie he started by sending a few warning jabs at her to test her speed. She easily danced out of the way, but didn't retaliate. Garrus tried to hit her again, this time more earnestly, but again she just wasn't there and he hit air. She was toying with him, he could feel it. _Fine, toy with this._ He quickly spun out with his right leg. The move was supposed to hit her in the chest, but she must have anticipated it. Because she ducked under his leg, hugged his ankle and slammed a forearm behind his knee.

On turians there is a special bundle of nerves that are located at the base of the leg spur. They are what make spur injuries so painful. If a blow is landed there it will lock up the leg and cause an inexperienced fighter to fall to the ground. It's a hard hit to make, because it requires a strike be made at a precise angle and turians, themselves, will usually not attack the bundle of nerves since it carries the same stigma as kneeing a human male in the groin.

Garrus, however, was a skilled fighter and Lia loved to attack him there. He was very used to dirty tactics. He couldn't prevent his leg from seizing up, but was able to use momentum and slam the leg backwards to knock Charlie off her feet. Charlie bounced back up and gave him a congratulatory smile. Garrus might have returned it, but his leg was in too much pain and he still had about thirty seconds left until he could bend the knee again.

Charlie attempted to move in close and take him off balance before his leg was functioning again. Garrus knew that he couldn't let her get in too close, so he swiped at her left side. She danced away, like he knew she would, but he had his right arm was already moving and connected with her sternum.

The playful look in Charlie's eyes vanished and was replaced by a cold calm. She let out a single gasp, but didn't let the lack of air in her lungs stop her. Charlie grabbed the offending wrist and twisted. Garrus heard the snap and while he was working on a counter with his left hand he felt her leg connect with his right hip.

The game they had been playing was done and Garrus' face matched Charlie's own. He drew first blood with his talons, it was actually an accident, but she reciprocated with a grab of cowl and fist in his face. His teeth were now cracked and bleeding. His blue blood a match for Charlie's own red. This was a real fight now and neither opponent was used to losing. Garrus couldn't even remember the last time he had lost, basic training probably. They circled each other, landing blows when they could. Garrus could see the bruises starting to show on Charlie's olive skin and he knew that he had a few ribs broken, as well as the fractured wrist.

Garrus eventually made the mistake of letting Charlie in too close. She ducked under his damaged right arm and landed the heaviest blow Garrus had felt, to the sensitive area on the side of his waist. Charlie then ducked and swept his legs out from under him. She was on top of him before he could hit the ground, spirits she was faster than she had any right to be. Charlie was straddling his chest and he had no idea what her plan was. He couldn't get up with his legs like this, but he could still throw her. He moved his arms up to do just that, but that seemed to be the wrong move because she was waiting for him.

What happened next was a little too fast for Garrus to keep up with, mostly because it confused him thoroughly. Charlie grabbed his undamaged left arm and somehow slipped her legs around his neck and moved herself to the ground so he couldn't push her off. Her powerful legs were threatening to choke him and he couldn't get any leverage to move her off.

"I could break your neck right now. Say it." Charlie was definitely out of breath and the words came out as a growl.

"No." Garrus was pissed and was considering how unsportsmanlike it would be to just shred her leg with his right talons.

Charlie must have heard his thoughts, because she said. "Do it and I'll break your other wrist."

She gave his hand a warning twist. Garrus growled and eventually conceded the victory to Charlie. After she let him go and they both got up, he looked over the injuries he had given her. Large purple splotches were showing on her skin, her shins and forearms were scuffed and bleeding from where they had connected with his plates, her nose was broken and pouring blood, and there were a few places where his three talons had gashed her. Garrus should really not have been proud by how bad she looked, but she was smiling and he found that he was too.

"How can you move like that?"

"I'm naturally awesome, it's a gift and a terrible burden." She grinned at his glare and put a bleeding hand to the side of her mouth as if she was telling him a secret. "Alliance regulated gene mods. My trainer suggested them and Admiral Hackett agreed to it. I got strength and dexterity mods. However, I am just naturally better than you. I didn't have them back on Mindoir."

Garrus' world finally made sense again. He had seen enough humans in combat to know that they did not possess that level of strength. However, he was also aware that genetic modification could only do so much and Charlie was definitely extremely gifted and dedicated to become such a combatant. He could obviously never tell her this.

"Well that was impressive." Dysus came over and slapped Garrus on the back. He couldn't suppress the wince in time.

"Sorry for damaging your recruit and hopefully no one was fool enough to bet against me this time." She said the second part loudly with a meaningful look at the crowd of officers. "I'll be by to collect my winnings after a quick trip to the med bay. I have to get all this blue blood off of me."

Charlie winked at Garrus and offered him a shoulder to help him to the med bay, but he pushed her away and followed her limping. Once they were away from the laughing crowd, he did accept her help and they half-carried each other to the doctor's office.

"So, that _was_ a lot of fun. Do it again sometime?" Garrus couldn't see her face, but the grin in her voice was evident.

"Definitely, next time it's my turn to win though."

Her response was her usual laughter and after a moment Garrus joined in.


	15. Chapter 15

_Author's note: It's so exciting gaining new readers and watching new people read my latest chapters. I just want to thank everyone who has given this story a chance. I would bake cookies and cake for all of you if I could. I have so much story to tell and I hope you will all stay with me on this ride. This note isn't really important, I just wanted to share my giant smile with all of you. _

Executor Pallin made Garrus Charlie's new partner and she was thrilled. Technically she was training him for the next six months as a cop, but she treated him like a full-fledged partner. Garrus was incredibly smart and as dedicated as she was to actually helping the citizens, no matter their situation. It felt like she finally had someone on her side. They easily fell into a routine together.

They sparred together multiple times a week and Garrus definitely made good on his threat to beat her. He did so a few times, but Charlie was a quick study and after a while she got the upper hand on him. Garrus was a significantly better shot than she was, though. He never gave up on trying to teach her to use a sniper rifle, but Charlie was only ever 'fair' at the exercise.

Garrus was initially better at programming than Charlie, but she forced him to teach her the skills she lacked. In the end, Garrus had a more refined and elegant code, but Charlie could brute force her way through most security systems. She found that she was still terrible with hardware, like she was back in the 21st century, but she could destroy software. Garrus would typically scoff at her programming abilities, but was secretly in awe of the insidious little monsters that she would create.

Grace loved Garrus. She had given up on calling him Mr. Growlie, but occasionally Charlie would catch Garrus growling at the girl and she would laugh and call him the old nickname. They worked well together and it never failed to shock Charlie when she would remember that she had first met him in a video game. They were still constantly trying to one-up the other, but they fell into a natural rhythm. They tended to complement each other very well. Garrus could come up with tactics and plans, that Charlie was woefully ignorant with. And Charlie could handle people and was a little better with direct confrontations.

* * *

**October 2173**

"Wait, so how do you take down a krogan in hand-to-hand combat?"

Garrus smiled at Lia and gave Charlie a playful punch in the arm. "Yeah, you keep dodging that question. What did you do use you natural charm?"

Charlie held her face in mock offense at the comment. "I can be very charming. I just choose not to waste it on brutish oafs like yourself."

"Come on, Char. I promise your charm won't go to waste on me." Lia batted her eyes at Charlie, who slid her arm around the turian and pulled her away from Garrus.

"Hey, I only get to see her for another week. Get your own woman." Garrus firmly pulled Lia back to his arms.

"I'm so sorry, Lia. You could do so much better."

Lia hung her head at her "fate". "So. Krogan. Spill."

"Right well the weakness to krogans is their insanely fast regeneration ability." Charlie paused with a twinkle in her eye, waiting for the inevitable waves of protest. "Seriously, it is. If, for instance, you shoot a krogan; then their regeneration ability will immediately close around the wound and heal it. However, it won't get rid of the projectile. This won't help you at the time though, because now you just have a pissed off krogan running at you. However, there are ways to level the playing field. I want to preface this by admitting that it is not easy. Garrus let me use you as a practice dummy or, I guess I could just say, let me use you to practice on."

Garrus gave her a disparaging glare and Lia giggled at his reaction. Finally he moved to stand near Charlie.

"Now if you put your hand in the armpit like this and rest your other hand on the front of the shoulder … here; you can force up and break the shoulder joint." She paused and gave Garrus an evil grin. "Now I won't show you that, but only because I did this to Garrus a couple months ago and he still hasn't forgiven me. Anyways, if you do it quickly to a krogan it will break. You have to make sure it's done properly though. When it's broken it leaves the arm unusable."

"But they can still heal it." Lia interjected.

"Yes, their body will heal the damage, but it cannot put the limb back in place. So the damage is gone and the arm will have to be rebroken and properly set to fix. Now you can either repeat this process to the other side or you can go for my favorite move."

Garrus groaned as he predicted her words. "Dare I ask?"

"Well I only recommend this if one of the arms is taken care of. Krogans have short legs and they can't really kick well, so get in close and punch them in the throat. I don't know where it is exactly, but they have a bundle of nerves under their chin that will temporarily stun them. Then take hold of the one good arm and get them on the ground, it's important that they fall on to their backs. On the way down with them position your knee to fall on their groin. They really hate that."

Garrus visibly winced and Lia gave him a strange look. "It's not like that would work on you."

"No, but I can imagine the pain well enough."

Charlie laughed at Garrus' discomfort. "Well that will buy you about a minute to grab whatever weapon you can find and finish the job."

Lia gave Charlie a very skeptical look. "This sounds very complicated."

Charlie laughed and nodded her head. "I've only done something similar twice before. Best case scenario is to have a gun handy or preferably a large incendiary grenade. Though taking them down in hand-to-hand like I said is the best method to use if you're just trying to scare a group of krogans. It's apparently very … impressive to them."

Garrus raised one eyeplate at Charlie, "So this is why that krogan, Kret, is always following you around?"

Charlie smirked and shrugged. "Fastest way to a man's heart is a knee to the groin?"

Lia put an arm around Charlie and said, "And you wonder why you are still single?"

"Such is life." Charlie said with a shrug.

They were having a lovely afternoon wandering about the Presidium. Grace was running ahead of them arm in arm with Darius and Mya. They had stopped to look at the krogan statue in the lake and that was what had prompted the previous conversation. The group had been travelling around the market place with no particular destination planned, but Garrus was clearly nervous about something. Charlie guessed that he was going to ask Cecilia to take his name, again. The man just kept hounding the poor girl, Charlie was starting to feel bad for her.

"Do you want to go out to dinner tonight?" Garrus asked the two of them.

Charlie shrugged as she wasn't sure if she was the recipient of the invitation.

"Is that a yes?"

"Are you really asking me out in front of your girlfriend? I didn't realize we were being so open with our obvious attraction." Charlie ran a hand lightly up Garrus' forearm and waited for him to chicken out and pull it back. She laughed triumphantly when he yielded.

"If you two want to get a room …?" Lia let the question hang as she was quite aware of the game and approved of Charlie's attempts to make Garrus uncomfortable. It had been a favorite game of hers for a while.

Garrus moved so that Cecilia was in between him and Charlie. "Seriously, stop it … both of you. I can't take either of you anywhere."

"Aw, so no dinner then?" Charlie pouted at Garrus.

Eventually the girls relented their torturous teasing of Garrus and they rounded up the children. After leaving Mya and Darius with their respective parents, Charlie and Grace got dressed for a nice dinner out. Grace wore a very pretty purple dress and looked very respectable for a ten year old. Charlie managed to find a pair of black pants, which looked suspiciously like work pants, and wore a plain white shirt under a dark green suit jacket. The jacket was important, because it hid the plethora of concealed weapons, which was why she did not let the salarian maître d take it when they arrived at the restaurant.

"So can we know what this is all about now?" Charlie bluntly questioned Garrus after everyone had ordered.

Garrus was clearly uncomfortable. He was shifting in his chair, his mandibles were twitching, and he was rubbing the back of his neck. Charlie chuckled under her breath.

_If I was dating him, I'd be scared he was breaking up with me. We are in a public place where I couldn't make a scene._

"They're transferring me." Garrus finally announced.

"You _are_ breaking up with me." The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them and Lia and Grace laughed at her discomfort. "I meant to say why transferring you? We haven't done anything to provoke Pallin, in a while."

Garrus, who had not laughed with the others though he did raise his eyeplates, took a deep breath. "It isn't because of you, Charlotte. It's me."

Charlie felt her jaw slacken with disbelief. "Garrus Vakarian, you had better be fucking with me. You did not just use the 'it's not you, it's me' line."

Garrus opened his mouth and then closed it again.

Charlie gave a frustrated growl. "It's a human expression for a common way to break up with a girlfriend. Normally this would be hilarious, but right now I am losing the best partner I've ever had. So you better tell me this is a joke."

The look Garrus gave Charlie threatened to break her heart. "It's not, I'm sorry."

"We've only been together nine months. Why are they doing this?"

"I'm getting promoted."

Charlie looked like someone just punched her. She had been with C-Sec for close to three years and the only time promotion had even been mentioned in conjunction with her name, was in a joke. She was never going to be a detective and she knew it. Of course she knew that Garrus would be, he was intelligent, well-connected, and he was a turian, but Charlie had been desperately hoping that that wouldn't happen for another year. It wasn't fair to him though. Garrus was her best friend and even in her old life, she didn't have many people in that category. Only Tim and Justin.

She shook her head in an attempt to clear the anger from her mind. "That's a good thing, Garrus. I'm proud of you." Garrus was still looking at her with that stupid heartbreaking face. "So where are they putting you?"

"They're putting me in Homicide; at least that's what Executor Pallin told me."

"Garrus, you will be an excellent detective." Charlie gave him a genuine smile.

Garrus clenched his hands against the tabletop and looked at Charlie with the heartbreaking stare replaced with anger. "You've been there more than twice as long as me. I beg- … I asked Pallin to promote you too. That _bastard _told me that that wasn't possible and dared to suggest you weren't ready and …"

Charlie reached across the table and placed a hand on Garrus'. "I know and, as much as I loathe admitting it, I might not be ready. You have five years of military experience and nine months of police work. I have just barely three years of police work. I don't give you enough compliments, but you are a damn fine man and you do deserve this."

"Charlotte, you are also a …"

Charlotte raised a hand to stop him. "Garrus, I don't want you to feel bad about me. Tonight is your night and tonight we are going to raise our glasses to Junior Detective Vakarian."

Garrus begrudgingly smiled and they all raised a glass of wine, well Grace raised a glass of juice, to toast him.

The night was much nicer after that, mostly because Garrus finally relaxed. Somewhere in the middle of dinner, Charlie was able to coax Garrus into their usual teasing banter. Grace definitely helped with that endeavor. She really was incredibly good at reading people's moods, Charlie was almost jealous of her tact.

"I'm sorry I didn't warn you, but he made me promise not to." Cecilia whispered to Charlie, after Garrus had excused himself to the bathroom.

"Oy, it's fine. A little warning would have been nice, but I can't say I'm that surprised. He's a much better cop than I am." Charlie squinted at Garrus' back as he disappeared through a door. "If you ever tell him I said that, I will find you."

"You're secret is safe. Garrus will never know that you actually have feelings and opinions."

Grace giggled, "I'm pretty sure Garrus knows that you like him."

"Honestly, if I didn't know better … I would have kind of assumed you two were married." Lia chuckled at Charlie.

Charlie made a disgusted face. "No … in fact hell no, he's far too … angular. Besides Garrus practically worships you."

The smile left Cecilia's face and she slackened her mandibles. "That is actually a bit of a problem."

Charlie was not expecting this reaction from Lia, so she just sat there looking at her. Grace interrupted the quiet.

"It's not that he worships her, Charlie." Grace placed a hand on Charlie's arm and smiled sadly. "Garrus doesn't feel in control of his life and he thinks of Lia as the one thing that he can choose for himself. She is the only rebellion he has allowed himself. Of course this doesn't actually make him happy and it's not fair to Lia."

Both Lia and Charlie sat there staring at Grace. Not because what she said was wrong, but because she was right. Neither of the two women had really considered that side of Garrus before. They were still stuck in that position when Garrus came back and took his seat.

"Alright who wants dessert?" He looked at the three females and asked. "What did I miss?"

"Nothing." All three females chorused.

Garrus gave them a skeptical look, but he had spent enough time around the women to know when not to press the issue.


	16. Chapter 16

**December 2174**

Charlie was walking her beat alone, again. Rychelle was supposed to be with her, but the older officer had once again decided that she'd rather file paperwork back at the office. This didn't really bother Charlie, because, with Garrus no longer her partner, she would much rather be alone.

It was a late shift that Charlie was walking. Garrus was staying the night at her apartment to watch Grace. As much as Charlie loathed losing her partner, she had to admit it was nice having someone to rely on to watch Grace when she worked these late shifts. Garrus was so good with the girl too and he seemed to really like watching her. Charlie wasn't sure if she should be concerned about Grace, but the girl had been acting oddly. She had always been calm, but now she was also quiet and Grace only talked if she had something productive to add to a conversation. This was almost the exact opposite of Garrus and Charlie. Charlie was not sure what she should do, but Grace had just turned twelve and maybe she was just going through the awkward teenage years.

Charlie considered this possibility and was reminiscing about her own violent and angry puberty, as she made her rounds. It was a quiet night, just a few people milling about. A few obvious drug deals wrapped up quickly as Charlie passed by. She probably should have intervened, but it was very small time and Charlie knew from experience that wouldn't be carrying enough product to put them away longer than a night. So she kept an eye out for the stash house with full knowledge that she wouldn't see one.

Charlie was wearing her omni-glasses, like she always did during her rounds, which is why she saw it. There was a problem with a lock on one of the shops. It looked like it had been broken into, but had not set off an alarm. Her glasses picked up the slight discrepancy in the locking program. The shop was just a used omni-tool store and not a very good one either.

Charlie called in the report of a possible robbery and let dispatch know that she was investigating the situation. She pulled her Armax Brawler from its holster and moved into the building.

The shop was small, dark, and empty. The showroom was dingy and the omni-tools were all locked up in cases. Charlie had been expecting the glass cases to be broken and some sign of theft, but there was nothing. She was about to move to the second level where she knew the stockroom was, but she saw an opening in the floor behind the counter. Charlie quickly brought up the schematics of the building on her omni-tool. There was not supposed to be a lower section to this building.

Charlie quietly sent a follow-up of her status to the precinct and slowly descended the stairs. At the bottom there was a narrow hall. Staying as silent as possible, she turned on the situational awareness sensors on her glasses. Over the years she had developed the VI to make continuous scans on for heat sensors, extraneous sounds, like gunfire and heat sinks reloading, and an advanced motion detector. When the mode was activated, she would receive a silent display of the information on the screen. Charlie could then activate the sonar mode to partially see through walls. The end result was a sort of heads up display. It was not a perfect system, but it had proven to be extremely useful and Charlie was grateful to Cecelia for her help in developing it.

At the end of the hall was a bend and her display informed her that there were a quiet conversation being held out of view. The display had a read out of the conversation.

_Salarian male 1: … Titus is a fool._

_Turian male 1: Agreed, but more importantly he is a late fool._

_Salarian male 1: Ten more minutes and then you are going to pay him a visit._

_Turian male 1: I'm not your errand boy; you only pay me for protection._

_Salarian male 1: Damn it, if that shipment doesn't get here, you're not getting paid at all._

_Turian male 1: Fine. Do you want this to be a friendly visit?_

_Salarian male 1: If Titus is screwing me on a sand deal, then there should be nothing friendly about it._

_Turian male 1: Those are my favorite kind of visits. _

Charlie crept to the edge and chanced a peek of the speakers. They were facing her direction, but only the salarian was looking down the hall. She recognized him as the shop owner, V'hol Quenn. She didn't recognize the turian, but he had bright purple colony markings slashed vertically across his face. They were both armed and Charlie did not like her chances alone against the two of them. She had no idea when backup was going to arrive.

Her screen informed her of movement in the ceiling. There were no heat signatures coming from it, but there were vibrations in the metal. Something was up there. Charlie was about to activate the sonar device when a vent opened up and a slender figure fell from the ceiling. The figure landed behind the V'hol and, with a quick motion, he snapped the salarian's neck. The turian who had been lounging in a chair swiftly stood up and opened fire on the intruder.

Charlie was not sure who the new person was, but murder was still murder even if the victim was apparently a drug dealer. Charlie knew it was a bad idea, but she stepped out of from behind the wall, leveled her pistol at the turian, and loudly announced, "**Citadel Security, drop your weapons.**"

Neither man seemed to acknowledge her presence. The murderer was using V'hol's body as a shield. His body glowed blue and he stretched an arm to the turian. The turian was also briefly outlined in blue before he was thrown backwards. Charlie turned her pistol to the biotic intruder and repeated herself.

"**C-Sec. On the ground. Now.**"

The man stared at her and she sent a warning shot over his shoulder. The man, who turned out to be a drell upon closer inspection, moved to lie down on the ground. The turian got up at this point and opened fire on the drell. Charlie, who had moved closer to the drell, was caught in the crossfire.

Charlie shot the turian's leg and said, "**Drop your weapon.**"

The turian stumbled to the ground and slid his assault rifle to Charlie's feet. She kicked the gun away from all three of them.

"I'm a Spectre." The turian groaned in pain.

"You're getting on the ground and putting your hands behind your head is what you are." Charlie scoffed.

"I'm Spectre Nihlus Kryik and you need to apprehend that drell assassin."

"Shut the fuck up and put your hands behind your head."

Charlie did a quick scan with her visor for additional firearms on the turian and found none. The drell was still not showing up on her heat sensor, which meant that he had a bio-mask turned on. Charlie cautiously reached down with her cuffs in one hand and her pistol in the other.

"Kalahira forgive me." She heard him whisper the words before he turned and grabbed her right wrist and twisted. The pistol fell from her hand and she tried to grab him with her left hand. He was fast though. He moved like water and either he was blocking her attacks or he just wasn't there when her arm or legs should have connected. Charlie could barely keep up her own blocks. She had a gun in her boot and a knife strapped at her back, but she couldn't get to them. The drell was too close and was far too fast for her to have a chance of reaching the weapons.

Charlie could not land a blow and she wasn't able to deflect all of his attacks. She did, however manage to grab his right wrist and she could feel a small blade concealed there. The drell grabbed the wrist that was holding his and he twisted so her arm was held behind her back. He had her pinned to the wall, but she had managed to get a loose hold on the blade. Charlie didn't have the leverage for a better attack, but she could drive the object into his forearm.

The assassin didn't yell, but his grip loosened enough so she could turn and plant the heel of her hand into his sternum. He stumbled backwards gasping for air and Charlie took the opportunity to grab her combat knife. As she lunged for the assassin, she heard the telling click of a rifle being unfolded. The assassin heard it too, because he redirected her movement and threw her at the turian who was aiming the gun.

By the time she had untangled herself from the wounded turian, the assassin was gone. Her sensors did not pick him either, but they weren't even sure he was ever there.

"We have to go. Now." The turian grunted at her.

Charlie stood in front of the disarmed turian. "You're right we do have to go. You are under arrest for trafficking red sand."

"We don't have time for this. Look up my credentials in the system." He sat down heavily and started to peel off the portions of damaged armor to get to the leg wound.

Charlie complied with the request, mostly because he was posing no threat. The omni-glasses dutifully read out the information on Spectre Nihlus Kryik. His facial tattoos were different than they were on record, but his voice print was an exact match.

"So? I take it by your silence that you believe me now?" His voice was laced with pain as he applied the medi-gel.

"Spectre, you almost shot me. I'm not apologizing for returning the favor."

Nihlus looked up at her as he finished wrapping the wound in plastic. "I didn't ask you to apologize. What I need from you is to accompany me to a warehouse in the Bachjaret Ward."

"Why? Why aren't we going after that assassin?"

"I would love to hunt down and murder that damned drell, but my cover is about to be blown and I'm finishing this mission." Nihlus resealed his armor and stood up, though he had to lean on Charlie for support.

"I can have a swat team meet us there."

"I'm not letting anymore dirty C-Sec fingers into this." Kryik scoffed at her.

Charlie stepped out from under his arm and pushed him into the wall. "If you don't want me here, fine I'll leave. I'd rather write up this report than assist a lawless Spectre bastard."

"I told you I am commandeering you. You don't have a choice in this. I'm a lawless Spectre bastard and you and I are going to take V'hol's aircar and we are going to go kill Raym Yuri."

Charlie really did not want to go with him, but curiosity, not a sense of doing the right thing, got the better of her. "Fine, but we're not killing him. We are taking him into custody and making him stand trial."

Nihlus let out a bitter chuckle as they walked up the stairs. "Deal. I'll kill him after you get yourself shot trying to take him in gently."

"I never said anything about gently."

* * *

They made it to the aircar and were just lifting off when Charlie's long awaited backup arrived.

Charlie checked her weapons while Nihlus drove. "So what's the plan?"

"Kill him."

Charlie glared over at the turian. "That isn't a plan, that's a goal. What is the layout of this warehouse? How many guards are there? How do you know Yuri is there?"

Nihlus cracked a grin. "That is far too many questions. As for the first two … I don't know. I do know he is there though. I've been under cover for months and I am absolutely positive that a shipment of red sand came in tonight. Raym Yuri is a paranoid man and he is always present during a deal."

Charlie was silent for a moment considering this. "As a cop, I know red sand is bad news. But that doesn't warrant a Spectre's involvement or a blind plan of murder. What did he really do?"

Nihlus didn't answer for a long while and Charlie re-holstered her weapons.

"He has political ties. Yuri is being funded and protected by someone with political clout. I didn't discover who that was, but if I can take him down, then this mission won't be a complete wash."

"Why don't you know who it is?"

"Because I didn't expect an assassin hit on my 'boss'. I also didn't expect to find an annoying human cop, who won't shut up and take orders."

Charlie raised an eyebrow that he couldn't see in the dark car. "Well this mouthy cop is going to need to be better armed if the best plan the idiot Spectre has is 'shoot everything'."

Nihlus grinned in spite of himself. "I have some extra weapons in the back. What do you need?"

"A shotgun."

"No rifle?"

Charlie rolled her eyes. "Maybe an assault rifle as back up, but I'm not good with distance work."

Nihlus chuckled darkly. "Well this is going to be interesting, neither am I."

"Fantastic. By the way, I'm Charlie Nacht."

* * *

Charlie tried not to be giddy at the equipment in the trunk of the car, but she failed miserably.

"How did you get an Avalanche IX? I didn't think they were out yet." Charlie lovingly stroked the shotgun and then started messing with its computer.

"I'm a Spectre. I'd have a HMWSG IIX here for you, but I was supposed to be undercover. Are you sure that isn't too big for you?" Nihlus gave her a skeptical look.

Charlie scoffed at him and continued to work at the computer console.

"Wait, what are you doing? You're going to overheat it and I'm not cleaning up the pile of red goop that will be left of you." He tried to take the gun away from her, but she danced out of the way.

"I'm almost done. If you want me going in there, then I'm going to be prepared." Apparently successful in whatever she had been doing, she grinned and attached the shotgun to her right leg. "If you keep making that face it's going to stay that way." Charlie commented at Nihlus' scowl.

"I could kill you right now and I wouldn't even need my Spectre status to get away with it. Anyone who has ever met you, would completely understand."

Charlie smirked at the threat. "Well you could try to kill me, but I'm the one with the shotgun that can rip a hole through your chest and set you on fire."

"Oh, you modded it to deliver a carnage blast. You could have just told me and I should probably check your work."

"You never asked what I did and I don't need you to check my work. I've been doing this for quite a while now. Also, why don't you have better mods in here? I'm not used to having an empty slot."

"I did ask what you … fine forget it!" Nihlus threw a hand up in exasperation. "I'm sorry my _trunk_ isn't up to your standards." He looked over her cloth uniform. "You should, at least take a shield generator. You're practically naked."

Charlie grinned and opened the top of her uniform to reveal the light armor skin suit underneath. Then she activated her own shield generator and her tech armor.

Nihlus gave her a suspicious look at the display. "What does a C-Sec cop need with that many shields and is that only light armor?"

Charlie shrugged and re-buttoned her top. "Anything heavier than light armor slows me down. I need to be able to move in a fight and heavy armor is far too bulky. So I supplement that with some rather nice shields. I have an 'acquaintance' in the military who showed me this tech armor."

Actually Charlie had begged Lia to give her the tech armor and had spent months learning the ins and outs of it. She had never had to use the pulse detonation aspect in combat before, but she knew how it worked.

"I was told that that armor was experimental and was being developed at a base on Menae. I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to find out who your friend is. Selling government secrets is a fairly high offense."

Charlie studied the turian's blank face. She couldn't tell if he was being serious with the threat and if he was then that would go badly for Lia. "Interesting. The turians are developing this as well and on a base on Menae. That seems like the kind of information that a human shouldn't know. Would that be the kind of 'government secret' you were telling me about?"

Charlie was still not a great liar. She couldn't pretend that she liked the garish sweater that you got her or tell you that 'no, of course I'm not a smoker'. But she had developed a very good "cop" face. Charlie had to use it every day. She just hoped that Nihlus didn't see through it.

"Fair enough. Anyways we need to get moving." Either Nihlus didn't actually care about the shield's origins or he believed her. Either way there was still a dangerous mission to embark on.

"Actually I have been working on getting those schematics. If you want to just give me a moment …" Charlie typed in a few commands to her omni-tool.

"You aren't assigned to this ward. Did you radio C-Sec? I told you that I don't want them to know we're here."

"No, I'm using your Spectre authority to gain access to Council records on the layout. Every building has to submit yearly updated schematics. Don't worry I haven't even touched C-Sec."

"You're impersonating a Spectre? There's a reason I didn't do it myself. They have people watching who accesses those files." His voice was heated and Charlie's monitor informed her of the use of rage subvocals, not that she couldn't figure that out by herself.

"You couldn't have done this yourself. I wrote a program while we were driving here. It will impersonate you, but it will only do it well enough to gain access. Anyone watching will know immediately that it is a fraud. Also I have gained access to all of the schematics on this ward. The program is going to look at each one for the same amount of time. No observer is going to be able to recognize which one we are after. So unless you picked up some tech skills that aren't listed on your profile, I doubt you could have done this."

Charlie pulled up the schematics and sent a copy to Nihlus' omni-tool.

"Should I be impressed or concerned?" Nihlus muttered as he went over the layout.

Charlie gave him a cocky twist of her lips and said, "You should be impressed. I am a cop and I only use my powers for good. And also for pissing people off."

"Congratulations, you succeeded."

* * *

_Author's note: I have spent far too much time developing Charlie's combat skills for the story. My main concern is that I don't want her to be overpowered. However, I also didn't want to use a pre-made build for her from the game, so I fashioned my own. Eventually she will become a jack of some trades and only a master at hand-to-hand. Kind of like a non-biotic Vanguard mixed with a smidgen of Engineer. Though she isn't there yet in the story. _

_By the way, it won't be mentioned till much later, but Charlie does not recognize Nihlus from the game. Because he was only in it for like ten minutes and that was a very long time ago for her._

_Also I gained new readers yesterday. So, hi guys! You're awesome._


	17. Chapter 17

Nihlus quickly formulated a plan of attack. They would enter an adjoining building and gain access to some keeper tunnels underneath the structure, and then they would make their way to the warehouse via the tunnels and come up from beneath. Charlie was still concerned at the fact that there were only two of them, but Nihlus insisted that he usually did this kind of thing alone and they would be fine. She was less than impressed by his bravado, but he was a Spectre and he was clearly very good.

The first half of the mission went well and was quiet. There were some guards in Blue Suns gear in the first building they entered, but Nihlus motioned her to stay back and he slipped on a stealth net and took care of them. Charlie tried to tell herself that they were criminals and that they would do the same thing to her if given the chance, but it was a hard sell. Every bone in her body wanted to take these men into custody and give them a fair trial. She had only shot eight people since joining C-Sec , including Nihlus. Charlie had only killed one person since that day on Mindoir. She did not relish in repeating the experience. Killing the batarians had never bothered her, not because they were aliens, but because they were actively attacking her and her colony. It was self-defense. This felt different. This was purposefully looking for trouble and ignoring the rules of law enforcement. As far as she was concerned, the Spectres were just legalized vigilantes.

Biting back her opinions, Charlie silently followed Nihlus. At the last door before they entered the warehouse, Nihlus held up a hand to stop her.

"We're probably going to need to be loud from this point on. But I want to try and prevent their knowledge of our attack for as long as possible. Yuri will attempt to get away as soon as he knows we're here."

"Understood." Charlie switched her shotgun for her long combat knife and nodded the go ahead.

The door, which was more of a maintenance hatch, opened into a supply closet and Charlie was proud of not announcing their arrival by knocking into something. It's not like she was clumsy, but well she could be a little clumsy sometimes. Honestly it was odd how someone with so much grace on a sparring mat could be a complete klutz at any other time.

Charlie put a hand on Nihlus before he could open the closet door. She motioned to him that there were two people in the next room and she pointed out their locations. He gave her a questioning look and she tapped the side of her visor. With a nod he told her to take the one on the right and he would go left.

The two Blue Sun mercenaries were in armor but were not wearing helmets. Charlie had no problems with slipping behind the right one, covering his mouth with one hand and slitting his throat with the other. As she laid him down on the ground, she could see his very young and very human face. It shook her more than it should have.

Charlie wiped her blade off on her pants and moved to Nihlus. They were in a large room in the basement of the warehouse. There were crates neatly stacked in high piles around them. Nihlus did a quick scan of the contents of one stack and informed her that it was just electronics. Charlie caught some heat on her sensors. She couldn't tell how many people there were, because they were too clustered together. She motioned the information to Nihlus and pointed out the direction.

They quietly ducked from stack to stack, swiftly making their way to the people. When Charlie could see what the heat sensors couldn't tell her, she caught Nihlus' arm and shook her head 'no'. There were twenty nude women sitting at a long table. They were bagging individual doses of red sand. There were also a few incredibly bored looking guards lounging in chairs.

Nihlus was of the opinion that they should take out this potential threat and Charlie quietly and furiously argued that that would mean killing the women. She was not foolish enough to believe that these were innocent human women, but they were not armed and killing them would be slaughter. Besides there were only three guards and they were hardly a threat.

Eventually Nihlus relented, but the look on his face was not a pleased expression. Charlie and Nihlus made their way around the people and reached the set of stairs that would take them to the main level. There were a couple of guards scattered between them and the stairs, but the duo quickly and quietly dealt with them.

At the top of the stairs, the door was open and they moved through it and ducked behind a low wall. Charlie remotely closed the door and locked it with her own encryption. Unless the guards they left downstairs were techs, they were safe from them.

Nihlus motioned to the group of men standing in the middle of the warehouse and whispered, "So are you going to give them the speech about how you're C-Sec and they should come quietly?"

Charlie stole a peek at the group. There were fifteen fully armed and armored men standing in the center of the room. The leader was also wearing full armor, but it was elaborately designed and made him stand out. He was arguing with a krogan. Oh yes, there were also five krogan. Charlie couldn't hear them and her program couldn't pick out the words with all of the ambient noise around them, but she assumed that they were arguing over the shipment of barrels that was directly behind the krogans.

Charlie crouched back behind the wall and looked at Nihlus who said. "Yeah that's what I thought. So just follow my lead."

Charlie assumed that the Spectre had a brilliant plan of attack. She definitely did not have one; there were twenty men out there and only two of them. When Nihlus moved out further down the wall to get a better angle she was not expecting him to suddenly throw a grenade and open fire. So she was extremely surprised when that was exactly what he did.

Charlie really wanted to yell at him, but she was far too busy with the mercenaries quickly bearing down on them. The low wall they were behind ran the length of the room and had two entrances, Charlie was by one of them and Nihlus was by the other. It was, however, very low and it only came up to her mid-thigh. She sent two blasts of her shotgun at the closest Blue Suns mercenary and he fell to the ground with a hole where his chest should have been. This action alerted the rest of the mercenaries to her presence and she was forced back behind cover to recharge her shields.

Another human mercenary tried to rush her position, but her visor informed her of his position and she reached up, pulled him over the wall, and point-blank shot him with her shotgun. Charlie gave a quick look at Nihlus to make sure he was alright. He was finishing off one of the krogan mercenaries. Charlie calmed her frantic nerves and found her center. She was not used to firefights. She was a beat cop who occasionally had to take down drunken patrons. Dodging crossfire and killing mercenaries had put Charlie completely out of her element. However, she was very well trained and she just had to rely on that training. She took a deep, calming breath and when her shields were back up, Charlie opened fire.

The fight was brutal, but she was able to keep the rest of the men away from her position. She only used the Carnage mod twice, because every use would slightly damage the aim on the shotgun. Charlie was slowly picking off the Blue Suns and hadn't had a single krogan focus on her, yet.

"Krogan charging!"

Charlie heard Nihlus yell the words, but didn't fully register them until she felt the assault rifle fire come pouring down her right side. Her shields were absorbing the damage and she turned to face the attacker. There was indeed a large krogan charging her and pouring fire in her direction as he ran. Charlie sent one regular shotgun blast into krogan and one Carnage modded shot as well. When the beast neared she tried to dodge him, but he grabbed her and rammed her into the back wall. The pain was incredible and the force caused her to drop the shotgun. The krogan was repeatedly bashing her body against the wall. He may have been severely damaged by her previous shots, but the blood rage was keeping him standing.

In between the vicious slams into the wall, Charlie managed to activate the detonation feature of her tech armor. The orange blast sent the krogan staggering backwards and he dropped Charlie, who pulled her pistol and unloaded the gun into the injured mercenary. The painful tightness in her chest spoke of cracked or broken ribs and she hoped that there wasn't also internal damage. The wracking cough that tasted of blood informed her that there was.

Charlie grabbed her shotgun from the ground and was about to move back to her cover, but the section of wall was too badly damaged. Instead, while staying crouched, she moved closer to Nihlus' position.

"Good you're still alive." Nihlus grunted while dodging back into cover. "Can you tell me how many are left?"

Charlie scanned the room with her omni-glasses. There were four mercenaries left on the ground floor, one of which was a krogan, and she could see two more were moving up a set of back steps to an overhanging office. After relaying this information to Nihlus, she helped him quickly finish off the ground floor. It was much easier working closely with partner, especially since Charlie could pick out where the mercenaries were hiding. She did take a nasty wound to her leg and she lamented not having armor that could auto-dispense medi-gel.

The flow of combat and the rush of adrenaline kept her mind from focusing on the pain. If Charlie could have seen the dead blankness on her face, it would have frightened her. But instinct and training had firmly taken over her mind and she finished off the last mercenary with a shotgun blast to the face, before she coldly stepped around his mutilated form and moved to the stairs.

Up the stairs, they found Raym Yuri hiding in the small office. Charlie and Nihlus positioned themselves on either side of the door.

"It's over Yuri, come out and let the nice cop take you in." Nihlus called out with a smirk at Charlie. She grimaced at him, partly because she was tired of the taunts and partly because she was in quite a bit of pain.

"Fuck you!" was Yuri's eloquent response.

Nihlus gave a nod to Charlie and the two of them leaned out of cover and into the room; Nihlus took a high standing position and Charlie went low.

Charlie made short work of the first man, with two shots to the chest. She felt the force of something rock her backwards, but ignored the momentary distraction. Nihlus made even shorter work of Yuri who, despite wearing some beautiful armor was woefully inexperienced.

Charlie was starting to feel lightheaded as she stumbled into the room and bent over Yuri's body. She knew it was mostly due to the bleeding leg wound, but her torso felt on fire now as well. Apparently her earlier scuffle with the krogan had damaged her more than she realized.

Nihlus had moved to the computer console on the desk and Charlie was connecting her omni-tool to Yuri's own. She sat down on the ground next to him, because she was just so tired. The scan through his tool didn't take long and there was not a lot of incriminating evidence on it. Mostly things they already knew. Details about the shipment, location of the warehouse, and … wait there was something new. Yuri had made a vid call to a C-Sec detective. Detective Cassius.

Charlie tried to tell Nihlus this information, but the sound out of her mouth was a gurgling cough. She found that she was having issues staying in a sitting position and felt her body fall backwards. Reality was starting to fade out on her and the pain was growing blessedly distant. She had to force her eyes open. She had to tell Nihlus about Cassius. Her eyes were pulling themselves shut and Charlie battled against the inevitable darkness. When she got them open again, Nihlus was crouched over her. He was saying something, but she wasn't sure what it was. He was doing something to her chest, but that didn't make sense because most of her injuries were internal.

Charlie tried to say something or move to stop him, but she found that she could only barely move her hands. Instead she focused on remotely activating her omni-tool. It only took a few small hand signals to bring up the correct information on the device, but Nihlus wasn't paying attention and the blackness was seeping back in. With a mighty effort, Charlie raised her left arm to her chest and saw Nihlus see the orange glowing message there.

Charlie closed her eyes and let the darkness have her.


	18. Chapter 18

Awareness started to creep back to her. She couldn't feel anything, but she could form thoughts. It was all so disorienting. Thoughts of her apartment with Justin, no that wasn't right she had an apartment with Grace. Garrus was home with her. Why was Garrus watching the girl? That's right, she had been at work. It was very confusing. Random images played through Charlie's head and she found herself getting lost in the memories.

Charlie was lost in the memory of getting coffee with Garrus one morning. They were on a lunch break and were sitting outside a small café. She was wearing the Star of David necklace he had given her for Chanukah. Charlie was teasing him about Cecilia and Garrus was teasing her back about Tevan. It was so natural and friendly. There was nothing particularly unique about this memory; it was just a normal day at work. She had dozens of the exact same memory.

Charlie could almost smell the drink that Garrus always had, Chuile. It smelled like an exotic chocolate. She breathed in the aroma and thought she could taste the familiar smell. There was the musky cinnamon smell of Garrus, he had started smoking Ignis with her and the two of them always smelled like the cigarettes. There was a slight underlay of cedar, Garrus had always had that. It reminded Charlie of an old cedar box she had gotten while on vacation with her grandparents. The lid had an etching of an eagle and it was quite pretty, but she never put anything in it. It would just sit unused on her dresser and every once in a while she would open it and inhale the rich scent.

There was another smell mixed in with the cinnamon, chocolate, and cedar. There was a heady scent of berries and vanilla. This one Charlie recognized immediately, that was Grace. The girl had fallen in love with an asari made shampoo; Charlie had found it hilarious that a hairless species made shampoo. But it was a very good brand and it smelled wonderful.

Her breath hitched when Charlie went to take another deep inhale of the aromas. Pain followed it. That was new, she hadn't felt pain before. Charlie pushed the memories away and focused on her surroundings. There were noises now, as well. There was a feint beeping of electronics and a deep bass rumbling of a turian sleeping.

_Garrus, that man left the vid screen on and fell asleep on the couch again. It's like he doesn't know how to go home. I'm going to have to wake him up. Perhaps a rude awakening with a pitcher of ice water would be appropriate. I seem to recall that turians love the cold._

Charlie gave an internal chuckle at the plan and tried to open her eyes and roll out of bed. She panicked when she found she couldn't move. Her eyes felt heavy, but she managed to crack them open. Charlie peered up at the tiled ceiling. This was not her apartment. Charlie felt tears start to build as she nervously darted her eyes around the room.

_What if I'm gone again? What if somehow I've jumped somewhere else? I can't do it again, I can't. Leaving Justin alone was bad enough, I can't leave Grace. I can't._

Charlie heard her voice make a squeak, which was supposed to sound like relief, when her eyes found Garrus. He was sprawled out on a chair with his head thrown backwards. Grace was curled up in a chair next to him and had her legs draped in his lap. Charlie managed to turn her head to the side to get a better look at them. She was also rewarded with a better view of her room. It was a hospital room. She tried to remember why she was in a hospital.

_Better ask Garrus. He'll know._

Charlie tried to work her mouth to form the question, but ended up giving herself a painful fit of coughing. This did manage to wake Garrus up. His head snapped forward and he stared at her. They only held that pose for a minute before he was swiftly standing at the side of the bed.

"Charlotte." His voice still held the ragged quality of sleep.

_He called me Charlotte, something's wrong._

_You are in a hospital, of course something's wrong._

Charlie tried to make her mouth work again, but only managed to say, "Happened?"

Garrus' eyes searched her face and then traveled down to her chest. Charlie thought of several witty and sarcastic remarks to make about where he was looking, but lacked the ability to vocalize any of them.

"You were shot." Garrus finally said.

Charlie gave him a questioning look and hoped he would take her meaning.

Garrus looked back at the still sleeping Grace before speaking. "For some reason, which no one will fully explain to me." His voice was heated and Charlie didn't need a program to tell her that it was from rage. "You were working with Spectre Kryik and the two of you got in a firefight with a drug lord. Raym Yuri, if I've been informed correctly. You were shot during the fight and Kryik dragged you back to Huerta and left you here. The staff didn't even know who you were, Charlotte, he took your omni-tool and weapons. You weren't even wearing your C-Sec jacket, so they didn't know that you are a cop. Spirits, Charlotte the injuries were very severe. You had a gunshot wound to your right leg, four broken ribs, and massive internal bleeding. The worst of it was the shotgun blast to your chest. Your body was riddled with shrapnel and your entire front was pretty much missing. I'm not sure how you survived long enough to get here."

Garrus' voice had run the gambit of rage and anger, but by the end it was shaking.

"When you didn't come home that night, I called C-Sec. They said you went AWOL and left a crime scene and a dead body. Pallin wasn't sure if he should be worried about you or furious. I was worried."

Charlie managed to move her hand a bit and got a hold of one of Garrus' talons.

"When we found you here … I thought you were going to die. What happened?"

Charlie opened her mouth to tell him, but fell into a coughing fit again. Garrus quickly sat her up and adjusted the bed into a reclined sitting position. After he had also procured some water, she could speak.

"I'm sorry." Charlie rasped. "I should have sent a message to you, but he was a Spectre and I thought I knew what I was doing."

Garrus looked thoughtful and then gave her a stern look and said, "Just tell me what happened."

So she told him everything. The story took a while, but thankfully it was during a night cycle and Grace stayed asleep the entire time. Garrus winced at the appropriate times during the part of her fight with the drell and looked concerned during the fight with the krogan. When she told him about Detective Cassius' involvement he just nodded his head knowingly.

"Tell me that she is in custody right now."

Garrus winced. "Actually she is also in the hospital. Apparently she 'resisted arrest' when Kryik showed up at her door."

A dark look crossed Charlie's face. "Good."

"Really? I thought you would be the one who found that to be a little extreme."

Charlie couldn't meet his eyes. "I would bet money that she is responsible for Sharisse's death. If I had been the one to make the arrest … well I hope I would have stopped with just putting her in the hospital."

Garrus gripped her hand that had left his talon. "I know, I'm sorry."

Charlie ignored the apology and asked. "So, how long was I out?"

"Four days."

Charlie opened her mouth in shock and looked at Grace. "What are you two doing here? _She_ should be in a real bed and _you're_ supposed to be taking care of her."

Garrus looked away and gave a small shrug. "Grace didn't want to leave and I couldn't just leave her here alone. So I stayed too."

"Wait, you have been here the whole time? She has school, Garrus, and you have work. It's not like I was going anywhere."

"Really you weren't going anywhere? You could have died, Charlotte. If I … if Grace wasn't here for you … I … We would have …" There pain laced with the anger now and his chest was heaving.

"Ok, I'm sorry. You're right. I don't know what I was thinking. I shouldn't have gone in there alone with Kryik."

"No, you shouldn't have. It was foolish."

Charlie felt a wry grin creep on to her face. "So you're telling me that you wouldn't have followed a _Spectre_?"

"No, I would have definitely followed him, but I'm an idiot. You're supposed to be the smart one, Charlotte."

Charlie raised an eyebrow at the compliment. Garrus didn't sound like he was joking.

"That was a compliment. Some people say thank you when they receive them."

"I honestly didn't know what the proper response was to a Vakarian compliment."

Garrus chuckled. "Don't expect this to be a new development. They will only occur during near death experiences."

"I guess I'll have to try this out more often."

Garrus let go her hand and gave Charlie a stern look.

* * *

Grace smiled, but kept her eyes tightly closed. She really wanted to give Char a hug, but she knew that both Garrus and Charlie needed this moment alone. She had woken up at the same time as Garrus and had stayed quiet, because she wanted to hear the whole story. Char would never tell her everything, so Grace had gotten very good at feigning sleep.

She listened to the adults continue to tease each other and couldn't help but let the smile grow a little bit more. Garrus had been on edge ever since Char had been injured. Grace had been very concerned and upset as well, but Garrus had been yelling at everyone, the nurses and the doctors. Whenever they would come in to check on Char, he would loudly demand an update on her condition. When that turian with the white markings on his face came to visit, Grace thought Garrus was going to hit him. He probably would have if she hadn't been there. Garrus had told the turian, Grace couldn't remember his name, that he was going to quit his job if Char died. Grace knew that Garrus didn't mean the threat, the same way she knew that the other turian was very sad that Char was hurt. Grace thought that he was a very nice man, but he was very stressed out about something and she didn't know what.

It was really annoying to be able to tell how people were feeling, but not why. Grace didn't know how everyone else dealt with it. Darius didn't know what she was talking about, but Mya had known. Maybe it was just a 'girl thing'. Char would know what I'm talking about, she thought.

* * *

Charlie was very disappointed when she finally left Huerta. Executor Pallin had given her a month's worth of leave. It wasn't that she didn't like being at home, it was just so boring. Also her doctor had forbidden her to engage in any "strenuous activities". When she joked that it was a good thing she didn't have a boyfriend, the doctor didn't laugh. Charlie hated it when people didn't, at least, acknowledge her jokes. It was insulting.

The worst part was that she was being "honored" with a reward for her bravery. The reward was an Erantius Medal. The Erantius was given to any cop shot in the line of duty and Charlie didn't really care about it. She had already been informed that this was not going to lead to a promotion and that was all she really cared about. The ceremony was set for a week before her leave was over.

Charlie heard the door open and then slam shut. A quick glance at the clock informed her that school wasn't out yet, so it must be Garrus.

"I'm on the porch!" She yelled.

The porch was actually more of a very small glass room off of the living room. It was just large enough for two chairs and a small table. Charlie had been spending a lot of time out here lately, just watching the cars flying by and quietly playing music. It had a lovely view of the ward, because this high up the streets weren't visible.

Garrus huffed into the room, slammed the door, and fell into the chair. "I thought the doctor told you not to smoke."

Charlie looked at the light blue cigarette in between her fingers. "Darling, doctors have been telling me the same thing for years. Even in this future where a couple of treatments a year can prevent any damage." She gave Garrus a once over, "He should have told you to stop being so angry, it is murder on your blood pressure."

Garrus gave her the growl that she had been fishing for.

She grinned triumphantly, "So tell me what's wrong?"

Garrus looked away from her and lit his own cigarette.

"Fine, I suppose I'll just have to guess. Stop me when I get close. Pallin's pulling your Detective status, because he just found out that you're really only five? No? Ok, you just found out that Chellick is going to be wearing the same dress as you at my award ceremony and now you're going to have to find something different, but it's not fair because the cut really made your cowl look so delicate? No? Alright, Cecilia finally came out of the closet to you and she told on our plans to run off together?" Garrus turned and gave her a warning look.

"Really? That one? Well this makes my life so much better. I really wasn't sure how to tell you I …"

"I asked my father a few months ago if he would accept Lia into our clan and he said no." Garrus said the words quickly.

Charlie took a drag off the cigarette before responding. "Why are you upset now though?"

"Because my family is coming to the Citadel and I can't take Lia to see them."

Charlie chose her words carefully. "I thought that Lia hadn't even said 'yes' yet and either way she isn't here right now. Isn't she still on Menae working at the base?"

"That's not the point!" Garrus was angry, not with her, but just angry in general. Charlie knew from experience it was better to let him vent. "I can't even mention her to my parents without getting a lecture about 'how she is bad for me' and 'I don't have a future with her'. Why can't they just let me be happy? Everything I have ever done was done only after getting permission from my father. I can't even choose a mate without him swooping down. And now my mother is getting involved too? I'm surprised they haven't enlisted Solanna with this conspiracy to keep me from being happy. What is wrong with Lia anyways? She is a decorated member of the military and she is a brilliant engineer. Spirits know that they keep her busy enough. Lia is always being moved from one facility to the next and her security clearance probably rivals my father's. But she is barefaced. Why does that even matter to them? It's so backwards and elitist to care about such a trivial detail. Maybe it's because she was raised by humans?"

Garrus threw his hands in the air with exasperation.

Charlie decided to try for a little humor, "Hey are humans really that bad?"

Garrus decided to take the question seriously, in his annoyance. "According to my father, yes. The only thing worse than coming home with a barefaced turian, would be to come home with a human."

Charlie chuckled and lit another cigarette.

Garrus stared at her like he had never seen her before and was wondering where she had come from.

"What?" She asked around the cigarette between her lips.

"You're a human."

"That's what they keep telling me, but I'm not sure I see it."

"You're also female."

Charlie's response was an exaggerated roll of her eyes.

Garrus had a wild, mad grin plastered on his face. "Would you be game for a little deception?"

After studying her cigarette, she responded. "You know my price."

"A very large and expensive meal will be provided for you and you will have your choice of liquor."

"Excellent. What are you thinking and should I be concerned?"

"I'm thinking that I take you to that dinner with my parents and introduce you as my girlfriend. My father will hate you for being a human and my mother will hate you for your inability to provide me with children."

Charlie scrunched up her face at the plan. "For the record, I already have a child so technically if we got married you would have Grace too." She held up a finger to prevent his response. "However, you seem to have forgotten an important fact. I can't act."

Garrus was quiet for a moment, clearly thinking about this snafu in his otherwise well thought out plan. He gave her a smirk and reached across to Charlie and lightly trailed a talon down her impassive face and across her collarbone. "My dear," He spoke in a soft, dark voice that was reserved solely for acts like these. "We already play the game. Just consider this the longest session so far."

With a wide grin and a push of his hand away, she said. "What if I make you crack? I'm so much better at this than you are. Oh, it would be glorious to break you in front of your parents."

"First one to break buys the winner lunch for a month."

Charlie clapped her hands with glee, this was going to be fun and there wasn't really a downside to it. "Can I be as obnoxious as possible?"

Garrus laughed loudly. "The crazier you are the better this will be."

_Author's Note: So, the next chapter is a little ... silly? It's important to the story though, so we'll be taking a break from the drama and action to look at the character's personal lives and ridiculousness. I hope you'll like it, because I love to write Charlie/Garrus interactions._


	19. Chapter 19

The dress was extremely uncomfortable. It was absolutely gorgeous, but extremely uncomfortable. Charlie slipped the heels on and decided that they were worse than the dress. Trusting Nexxia and her merry band of call girls had been a terrible decision. Charlie stumbled into the bathroom to put her makeup on. She had been considering putting on a full face of the paint, but quickly decided that that was far too much work. Instead she opted for a thin outline of black eyeliner and mascara, a light application of dark eye shadow, and just a hint of red to her lips. Not enough makeup to stand out, but enough to accentuate her eyes and lips. Charlie frowned at her nose and briefly wondered if chopping it off would actually make it better, but decided that that was also too much work.

Other than her poor many-times-over broken nose, she looked exquisite. Her dress was a floor length gown with a slit on the right side that came up to her mid-thigh. The top was a sleeveless half bodice that would have exposed her midriff, but had two wide strips that came off of the top, crossed, and folded into the top of the skirt. The result was a considerable amount of exposed cleavage, a large portion of exposed back, and the sides of her tight waist were bare. Charlie thought that she looked scandalous, but she supposed that that was the point. The color was beautiful as well, the girls had picked it out, but Charlie readily approved. It was gorgeous blue that complemented her eyes and brought out more of the blue than the grey.

Charlie's hair had been a difficult question to answer. The length had gotten to the point where she would normally pull it back in a ponytail and pin the rest to her head. However the girls had told her that this was unacceptable. In the end, she spent a lot of time forcing the curls to behave and let them hang loosely around her face. She only owned the one pair of earrings and even though no one would see them, she put on the pearls. Charlie never took off the necklace Garrus had given her, so the six-pointed silver star already hung around her neck.

Charlie heard the front door open and she gave her reflection a saucy pose before making her way out of the room.

* * *

Garrus was extremely nervous. His father, Antonius Vakarian, was not a fool. If Charlie wasn't convincing then this plan would go up in flames. Which reminded him that he also needed to be convincing, damn the spirits. Why did human females have to be so soft and unappealing? Not that Charlie was particularly soft by human standards, but she still had those damnable breasts and they were so … soft and disgusting.

Garrus paced the living room in his suit. It was his best suit and it was tailored to him exactly. Thick and expensive black cloth with his Vakarian blue accents around the wide collar and the breast pocket.

He heard the sharp clicks of her heels before he saw Charlie. When she came into view, he froze.

The sweeping lines of the dress accented her waist, as if it was framed like a picture. Her chest looked larger than it normally did, but her collarbones were bare and he found his eyes tracing the lines of them. The dress hinted at the outline of her ribs, but wickedly kept them hidden from view. Charlie also seemed taller than she usually was, the heels must have given her at least four extra inches in height.

"So?" He was asked, before Charlie did an awkward spin in a circle. Spirits, even her back was exposed. Garrus had seen Charlie naked before, but he had never seen her like this. Before it was nudity in the locker room as she put her armor on. She was barely more than an olive skinned mass of flesh that Garrus wouldn't have categorized as female. This Charlie was different. He wondered why he had never noticed the dipping line down her back as her spine was framed by the tight muscles.

Charlie moved in front of him and coyly ran a hand up his chest. Garrus looked in her face and took in the differences. When did her eyes get to be so large? He should have found them alien and disgusting, as turians did not possess such eyes. Garrus couldn't even remember any other humans with such eyes, maybe asari did.

Charlie frowned at him and removed her trailing hand. "If you're not going to play, then it's no fun at all. Ready to go get me a free meal? I'm starving. Ugh, this dress is so uncomfortable."

She squirmed with the fabric, wrestling it back in place. That coupled with the comment, snapped Garrus' mind away from how she looked. He chastised his stupid male brain for making him ever so briefly consider … no. No. This was Charlie and she was the absolute last female he should be objectifying. Knowing her, she'd probably pull every single last tooth and clip his claws for even contemplating … no. No. That did not happen. It did not. Lia, think of Lia. The thought of Lia make his heart ache briefly and he pushed the emotion down. It's just that stupid dress with that color. Garrus stopped the train of thought and looked back at Charlie to confirm his suspicions. Vakarian blue, why was she wearing his color?

* * *

The trip to the restaurant was awkward. Charlie had no idea why though. Garrus almost seemed to be mad at her. Had she broken some ancient turian taboo? Charlie looked over her appearance, as far as she knew she was wearing an acceptable style of dress. Chest aside, she had seen a few turian females wearing a similar style of gown. True she had more waist showing than an older turian female would, but the younger ones would definitely wear this.

When they arrived at the restaurant, Charlie was only too happy to get away from the interior of the car. Garrus stepped out first and she was about to hop out when a turian hand reached through the door with the palm facing up. Before she remembered that she was supposed to be playing a role, she scowled at the gesture. Charlie took a deep breath and mentally put on the character that she had been crafting.

_Just pretend that you like him._

_Well that won't be hard, you do like him._

_True, but not like that … at all._

_Yes, well … how about you just tease him mercilessly and win that bet instead._

_That I can do. Winning is my favorite thing._

Charlie accepted the hand and stepped out of the vehicle. "Thank you, love." The raised eyeplate Garrus gave her let Charlie know that the low pitched, breathy voice was a good choice.

"You're very welcome." Garrus' tone was a deep rumble that gave her involuntary goose bumps.

_Damn, he's playing too._

He offered her an arm, which she took, and they made their way into the restaurant.

Charlie had grown up in fairly well-off lifestyle; as such she had been to her fair share of fancy dinners. This restaurant was something else entirely. The décor was understated, yet lavish. Elegance was too plain a word to describe the place. It didn't feel like the normal design Charlie had come to expect from this future she was living in. The layout was intriguing. The entire room was wrapped around an enviro-bubble that contained a beautiful greenhouse. It was clear that it was possible to enter the greenhouse, but there were no benches inside. Aside from that impressive centerpiece of the room, the rest of the décor was almost Spartan. Colors were sparse, as was artwork, but the pieces that were present were large and impressive geometric shapes. The mathematician that still lurked within Charlie wanted to study them.

Charlie paused in front of one sculpture and slowly moved around it. It appeared to be made out of brass and comprised of hundreds of complicated loops and bends, which formed a polyhedron. Charlie tried to count the sides, but her eyes kept slipping away from the object and the design was purposefully confusing. At first she thought that it was made of individual pieces, but the closer she stared the more it appeared to be just one piece. The complexity of the sculpture was both chilling and thrilling her.

"Do you like it?" Garrus' tone was skeptical.

Charlie stared at him with poorly concealed astonishment. "It's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I could stare at it for hours and still fail to grasp how it was made."

"It is rare to find an alien who can appreciate turian art." An unfamiliar male voice said behind her.

"If this is a general example of turian art, then that is surprising indeed. Could you tell me how it was made?" Charlie didn't turn to look at the owner of the voice; she simply assumed that it was the maître d'. Besides her eyes wanted to trace the lines and seek out the mysteries of the piece.

"Original sculptures, like this one, are made from a single piece of metal that is painstakingly heated and bent using specialized tools. The truly impressive part of a piece like this is that it must first be conceptualized."

"No, though that is impressive, what is truly impressive is how the angle of the curves is in perfect symmetry. I do not care how 'specialized' your equipment is, unless you are using some form of computer or fabrication device … this should either not be possible or the artist is a genius."

She heard the voice chuckle. "No such device was used, I assure you. Reproductions are manufactured using a fabricator and some of the more complicated modern pieces are computer generated, but older pieces are hand wrought."

"I was just introduced to this art style and even I think that that is slap in the face of the talent that can create such pieces."

She heard Garrus clear his throat and he placed a hand on the small of her back to get her attention.

"Charlotte this is my father, Antonius Vakarian, my mother, Oenone Vakarian, and my sister, Solanna Vakarian. Family, this is Charlotte Elizabeth Nacht."

Charlie blinked her eyes in surprise, but quickly gained control of herself again. "A pleasure to meet you all, I apologize for my rudeness."

"Not at all dear, Antony should have introduced himself immediately. He's so rude I don't know why I put up him." Oenone companionably took Charlie's arm and had such a pleasant voice and manner that she was put immediately at ease. The older woman was wearing a beautifully exotic black dress with a blue sash.

"Son, you should have told me you were bringing a companion." Antonius addressed Garrus with a stern voice, but smiling face. Charlie had to remind herself that this was the man that their deception was directed at, because at the moment she rather thought she liked him.

Garrus hand tightened on her waist and she let herself be pulled closer to him. His talons tickled her bare flesh and he was warm. Had he always radiated heat like this? "I apologize, father. Charlotte is my girlfriend and I thought it was time for her to meet the family."

Solanna practically bounced over to Charlie and pulled her into a hug. This was … odd. She shot a glance over to Garrus and searched for explanation within his plates, but found none.

"Oh, you are so pretty for a human!" Solanna covered her mouth with a delicate hand. "I'm sorry, that probably sounded terrible xenophobic. I just meant that you already look lovely in our colors."

Charlie froze, thankfully with the smile still attached to her face. _Oy gevalt, I'm wearing his colors. Why didn't anyone tell me? Nexxia. That bitch. She knew. I'll kill her; it's the option I have left._

Aloud she said, "Oh well, I wasn't sure if it was appropriate, but it is such a handsome shade of blue."

She felt Garrus' hand stiffen on her back.

"Nonsense, of course it's appropriate. It lets us know how serious you are about our Garrus." Oenone responded to her.

_Yes, I am definitely killing Nexxia._

Any further conversation was cut short by the maître d showing them to their table.

They were shown to a round table that seemed to give the illusion of being secluded, even though there were other tables in view. This was cleverly accomplished with a privacy screen that did not block the view of the greenhouse.

Garrus pulled her chair out for her and she gave him a gentle stroke of the arm. "Thank you, love."

Garrus then sat on her left, Antonius to her right, Oenone sat next to her husband, and Solanna sat next to her brother. It was a comfortable arrangement, except that Charlie was between the two men.

There were only two options on the levo menu, compared to the six on the dextro portion; but they both looked delicious.

"Do they have anything kosher for you, Charlotte? I'm sorry I should have checked before we came." Charlie gave Garrus a genuine smile for remembering her eccentricities.

"Yes, I'll get the steak rare and it'll be fine."

After they had all placed their orders, Antonius turned to Charlie. "So Charlotte, I believe I have recently heard the name of Nacht. Where do you work?"

"Citadel Security, sir."

"Really?" Antonius spread a smile across his face and quirked an eyeplate at Garrus. "Are you two partners?"

Charlie smiled and shook her head. "No, I'm not a detective. I'm just an officer."

"Ah, a beat cop. I started there, as well. They have you on the Presidium?"

The talk of work and the amiable tone Antonius took, put Charlie at ease and she felt herself slipping into "Charlie" mode versus this "Charlotte" persona.

"Actually they didn't keep me there very long. I've been in lower Shalta ward for over three years now."

"Really? For _three_ years? Why haven't you made detective yet?" Antonius seemed genuinely surprised.

"Well I'm sure the Executor would give you some reason that consisted of my unpreparedness for the position and my lack of responsibility."

"That seems unlikely if you are the officer receiving the Erantius Medal. I assume the actual reason is your race."

Charlie took a delicious sip of wine. "That would be the obvious answer. Some of us can't skate by on genetics alone." She poked Garrus in the side and then realized that she was supposed to be attracted to him and turned the gesture into an awkward hug.

Garrus gave her a falsely shocked expression and put his arm around her. "You said you thought I was ready for the promotion."

"Of course you were ready." She took another sip of wine. "You were trained by the best."

Antonius calmly watched the display and said, "You did work with my son, then?"

Garrus was tracing light circles on her shoulder. Charlie was not about to lose the bet, so she moved a hand to his leg and simulated the motion against his inner thigh. When Garrus tensed, she knew she had won this round.

"Yes, sir. We were partners for about nine months and I take all the credit for his accomplishments."

"So what are you winning the award for?" Solanna asked with barely bottled enthusiasm.

"Um, I was shot." Charlie really didn't want to discuss the incident.

Antonius, however, seemed to have different plans. "From what I heard you were shot multiple times and barely made it to Huerta alive. How does something like that happen to an average cop?"

Charlie's hand gripped Garrus' leg and it must have been painful, because he unbent her fingers from their clenched position. "An unexpected mission gone wrong, I suppose."

Oenone put a hand on her husband's arm. "I think that's enough of an explanation, Antony. Don't you?"

Antonius let the issue go and the conversation shifted to Solanna's upcoming boot camp. When their dinners arrived Charlie realized that Garrus was still holding her hand under the table. Which was odd, because no one could see the interaction; she removed her hand and Garrus removed his arm from around her. Charlie wasn't sure why she immediately missed the contact. Probably because the restaurant was so cold, she reasoned.

"So, how do you find C-Sec?" Antonius asked.

"Honestly? I enjoy my work, but I find that many of the other officers are too attached to the laws of their individual systems. We are on the Citadel and we should only uphold these laws. For instance, prostitution is legal here. Quite a few of the turian officers, no offense, have decided that they don't care for that law and treat the prostitutes as second class citizens. This is completely unacceptable."

Antonius nodded, "I noticed that problem when I worked there, as well. We are officers of the law, it's not our job to second guess the law and decide who is and who isn't a criminal. Personally I had more of a problem with the abhorrent way quarians were treated."

"Oh do not get me started on that. It's disgusting. Just because they are not a council species does not take away the basic rights they are owed as a sentient race."

"Humans aren't a council species either, Charlotte." Garrus added.

She gave him a small shoulder nudge. "Exactly my point and we are treated with a lot more respect than the quarians. And they never went to war with any of the other council species, like we did."

There was a sharp intake of breath that came from both Garrus and Solanna as they stared warily at their father.

"That's a good point. We didn't go to war with the quarians, though there is a problem with the geth." Antonius smirked at his children's reactions.

"Oh, the geth." Charlie scoffed, ignoring Garrus' silent prompting to shut up. "They haven't been seen outside of quarian space in how many hundreds of years? Besides is anyone even sure where quarian space is anymore? The humans are seen as a much bigger threat and, if I'm being honest with myself, we probably should be perceived that way."

"Really?" Antonius set down his utensil and leaned back in his chair with interest. "Why do you feel that way?"

"Well there was the Relay 314 incident, as turians love to call it, even though we had inferior firepower and were severely outnumbered we held our own. Now we could sit here and talk about who was at fault for that war, but honestly it's a pointless argument. In the end, I think we can both agree that it was poorly handled on both sides and by the entire council. So, because of that war the galaxy is aware of presence and our capacity as a war machine. The Alliance is now in possession of even greater technology and we have a burgeoning biotics populace, something that every other species lacks except for the asari."

"The turians have our own biotics, though." Antonius put in.

"That's true you do, but even though we only started gaining biotics within the past two decades … our percentage is already far greater than your own. Actually, I lied for a second … there is another race that has our percentage of biotics. The krogan and we all know how that ended."

The conversation was getting a little heated now and both Charlie and Antonius were leaning across the table speaking with elevated voices.

"So you're comparing humans with the krogans. Are you trying to make a genophage connection? That the only way the turian Hierarchy knows how to deal with a threat is to unleash a genetic weapon?"

"Oh the humans are not krogans, we are infinitely worse. We are an excellent mix of combat prowess, intelligence, and adaptability. I don't even think the turians can rival that."

"How can you say that?" Antonius deep bass rumbled at her. "Your species is so young compared to every other one we have encountered, except for maybe the drell. Two hundred years ago you had just figured out that if you put enough explosives in a container and fire it off, it can leave the atmosphere. A hundred years before that you didn't even have a basic computer!"

"Exactly!" Charlie's eyes were feverish with joy at the argument. It had been _years_ since she had her last good shouting match with an intelligent person. "We are a young species and yet we have absorbed this extremely advanced technology and we understand it. Worse than just understanding it, we are improving it. The entire council has been in a technological rut for centuries. You haven't had any major breakthroughs, but the humans have. The thing that you are missing that we have is wonder. Wonder at this brand new galaxy we live in. We want to see and understand it all, and then we are going to make it better."

"So what should we do? Humans are clearly a threat and they are grabbing power a lot more quickly than any other species has. The turians considered making you a client race after the war, but the council wouldn't let us."

"It never would have worked. Humans understand what slavery is …"

"It's not slavery!"

"Oh, so having an entire sentient species do your bidding and put under your talon; without the possibility of escape … is _not_ slavery?"

"It's a mutually beneficial partnership."

"Oh, that's why I've seen the beautiful volus embassy. They definitely don't share a dingy room with the elcor and they definitely have a seat on the council. Because a 'partnership' implies that both members have an equal vote."

"They are a free people. They control our entire economy; they have as much leverage over us as we have over them."

"That is just a recipe for disaster. What happens if there is a market crash? Those things happen, as I'm sure you are aware?"

"We haven't had one of those in a hundred years, but if one was to happen we would handle it orderly … like we do everything. Unlike the humans, I might add."

"So you're telling me that the Hierarchy is full of order? That no 'good' turian is out for his own gain and glory? That the laws are meant to be followed?"

Antonius gave her a wary look with the full knowledge that he was being baited. "That is the ideal, yes."

"Then explain to me why there are so many turian Spectres."

Garrus who had put a hand on Charlie's back again, clenched his fist. Charlie turned back to look at him and he was slowly shaking his head as a warning.

"I … disagree with any kind of Spectre involvement." Antonius spoke through clenched teeth and Oenone placed a reassuring hand on her husband's arm.

Garrus leaned forward this time. "Really father, any kind of involvement? Because I could sit here and list the thousands of people that have been saved by 'Spectre involvement'?"

"They are an idealistic concept that should never have been put into practice!"

Nodding her head at Antonius, Charlie said. "I agree."

"What!" Garrus turned to look at her as if she had shot him in the back. "How can you say that? You've seen what going through legal channels can get you. People die waiting for the courts to make a decision."

"Yes, it is a broken system isn't it? I didn't say that our system is perfect, but are Spectres really the answer to it? Obviously not since they exist and we still have these problems."

Garrus withdrew his arm and leaned away from her, while Antonius leaned forward.

"Look I can give you a few good reasons why the Spectre system is broken. What am I, Garrus?"

"A cop."

"Correct, and whom do I serve?"

"The laws?"

Antonius quietly said, "The people, son."

"Correct, I serve the people. I only care enough about the laws to let them tell me _how_ I'm allowed to serve the people. The Spectres do not serve the people, hell, they don't even serve the laws. They serve the Council and I would argue that they don't even do that."

"No, the Spectres help the people. What about Spectre Alois on Thessia last year?"

"Good for her, she saved a couple hundred people. That's not my point. Do either of you know how much Spectres get paid?"

Both men looked at each other and shook their heads.

"Interesting, I though you would know. Spectres do not get paid, not even a cost covering stipend. Now usually their government of origin will give them a ship or maybe they'll even pay them, I don't know. My point is that Spectres are essentially mercenaries. No, don't give me that look Garrus. I know you've seen the Spectre requisition depot at C-Sec. Are they giving those weapons to them, no they are selling them. So, the only way for a Spectre to make money is to do side jobs or hope that someone really appreciates their assistance and pays them. So let's say that I'm living in far flung colony and my daughter has been kidnapped. Now the local police do not negotiate with terrorists and I am out of luck. But wait there is a Spectre in town, surely he or she will help me right?"

She waited for Garrus to respond and when he refused, Charlie continued. "So I'm too poor to pay him and he has no reason to help me other than out of the goodness of his heart. Does that sound fair? Is he serving the people? Is he? Because if he's not serving the people and he's definitely not serving the laws, then who is he serving?"

"I don't know, but Spectres do help the people I've seen the reports."

"I'll admit they _can_ do very good work, but there is almost no oversight. Only the council can revoke their status and we all know how quickly they work. There is just so much room for corruption. I imagine it would be extremely easy for a Spectre to do some dirty work, because they need the money. I'm not saying they are all bad people, I'm saying the system is flawed. Impossibly flawed. Technically a Spectre could assassinate someone and not be tried for it. How is there any justice in that?"

Garrus was quiet for a moment before answering. "I thought that you'd understand the need for Spectres. Clearly your mission didn't go well, but if it wasn't for Kryik then Yuri and Cassius would still be out there."

"Nacht is a cop, Garrus. She understands what's wrong with the Spectres." His father quietly said.

"Garrus," Charlie lowered her voice and placed a hand on the side of his face to make him look at her. "I don't want you to think that I believe you are a fool for believing in them. I don't think that, but a Spectre almost got me killed with his recklessness. And because of his authority I went along with him. True, in the end, we got Yuri. We killed a lot of people along the way, they weren't good people, but they were still sentient beings and that is not serving the people. I don't have an answer on how to fix the problem of Galactic security, but this isn't it. The answer isn't to take a group of unpaid 'lone gunmen', throw them out into the galaxy, and tell them to fix it all by themselves."

The table was quiet for a moment while the tempers cooled down and dessert was ordered. Charlie was starting to feel just a bit tipsy, not enough to affect her judgment, but enough to loosen her up and maybe speak more than she should. So when Antonius brought up the topic of religion, Charlie readily took the bait. The conversation was getting deliciously heated again as Charlie and Antonius waged verbal war.

"I'm just saying that traditions are important. They let us know our roots and origins. I don't necessarily believe in a higher power, but I'm not going to forfeit the traditions of my forbearers just because of a simple ideological difference."

"You think that not believing in the core of your religion still entitles you to that religion? That is preposterous." Antonius countered.

"You are completely missing the point. Judaism is both a religion and a heritage. My mother was a Jew and her mother was a Jew and I am a Jew."

"That's insane. If a turian doesn't believe in spirits, then they don't light a candle for them. It's not a tradition, it's a belief."

Charlie laughed at him, "If you saw how big our actual book of sacred texts was, you'd understand why 60% of Judaism is traditional."

Antonius was no doubt about to further the argument, but Garrus cut in. "Can you two stop fighting for ten minutes? I'm sorry Charlotte, I shouldn't have brought you. I had no idea that my father would be so antagonistic towards you."

Charlie waved her hand at Garrus to make him be quiet. "I was in the middle of a thought and you made me forget it. Now shush, we're just having a friendly talk. Right, Antonius?"

Antonius quickly dropped the mask of anger and smiled, "Oh yes, very friendly. I'm so glad we got to meet you, Nacht. You are the most fascinating human I've met. Excellent choice, Garrus, I can only speak for myself, but I approve."

Garrus gaped at his father and Charlie had to cover her mouth to prevent the laughter from bubbling through.

Oenone beamed at Charlie and reached across the table to grab her hand. "I love this girl. She can put up with your father and carry her own. Charlotte, dear, you have some very turian teeth and I'm so happy Garrus found you."

Solanna was not to be left out. "I like you too. I would love to hear more stories about your career and maybe spar with you, since Garrus mentioned you are very good." She placed a hand next to her mouth and loudly whispered, "And you are so pretty. Much prettier than the last girl."

Garrus, who had been slowly working his mouth with little success, finally found his tongue at this remark. "Cecilia is a turian, how can a _human_ be prettier than a _turian_!"

One hand was clearly not enough to keep from laughing, so Charlie placed another hand on her mouth. Her shoulders were shaking under the monumental effort.

The entire family was quiet in the wake of this announcement and Charlie found an opening to win the bet. She composed herself, then tucked under Garrus' arm and leaned into his chest. Running a hand across his chest and into his cowl, she cooed. "Darling, don't upset. You can take me home tonight and I'll show you just how much better human females are over turians."

That did it. Garrus jumped back from her advances and stood up, knocking over his chair in the process.

Charlie grinned broadly and in a sing-song voice she said, "I win."

Solanna's voice quickly followed Charlie's own. "I knew it!" The girl raised an accusing finger at Garrus.

Garrus, for his part, stood behind Charlie and a dark shade of blue flushed under his neck as he looked at the faces at the table.

"So my son isn't dating you?" Oenone finally broke the tension.

"No, ma'am. I apologize for the deception, but I am, or maybe was, a good friend of Garrus'. I would love to do this again sometime. I quite like all of you, as well."

"You're still with Commander Modius, then?" Antonius asked his son with a feint growl lingering in the back of his voice.

"Yes father, I am. I love her and you can't stop me from bringing her into the family."

"Actually I can, but that's not the point. You'll learn it eventually. Now if the drama is quite over I was having a conversation with Officer Nacht."

The rest of the short evening was wonderful, according to Charlie. She finished the religion debate with Antonius and then gave into Sol's request for some stories. After she managed to coax Garrus out of his sulk, even his night got better. Eventually, it was time to leave and they said their goodbyes outside of the restaurant.

"I enjoyed meeting you, dear. Even if you aren't going to be a Vakarian, I would love to have you visit us on Palaven and please bring your little girl." Oenone gave Charlie a hug.

"That would be fantastic, though I might spend most of my time in an art gallery."

Solanna looked between Garrus and Charlie and gave a smirk. "We know that you aren't dating now, you don't have to have to keep pretending."

Garrus pulled his arm back, which for some reason had found its way back to Charlie waist. Charlie blushed and stepped a foot away from him. Oenone and Antonius shared a small look that both Charlie and Garrus missed.

When they were finally alone in the car, Charlie turned to Garrus. "Garrus …"

"Yes Charlie, you win. Are you happy?"

Charlie took off one her heels and threw it across the car at him. "No, I'm not happy. You cut me off."

"Sorry, what were going to say?" He studied the heel with feigned disgust.

"I'm sorry that I am such wonderful person, that your parents loved me and want you to marry me." Charlie tried to look wretched about it, but failed miserably.

Garrus threw the shoe back at her. "You're not even a little bit sorry."

"Okay, okay… I am a little sorry though. I wish I could tell you why they don't like Lia."

He was silent for a while before whispering, "I think they liked her in the beginning, but … for some reason … they keep pushing me away from her."

"Why does it matter what they think?"

Garrus stared blankly at her like she was an idiot. "Because I can't make her part of the Vakarian family without their approval."

"So?"

"That matters … it means if we have kids … they won't be Vakarians."

"Why would that matter, you would be happy."

Garrus was quiet for too long and Charlie continued. "Would you like to hear a story?" He glared at her. "It doesn't matter, you are getting one anyways. When my grandparents were very young there was war going on. My grandfather's country was committing genocide against my bubbe's people."

Garrus gave Charlie a sharp look, "What war was that?"

Charlie dismissed the question with a kick at his arm. "Doesn't matter, I'm telling a story. Now shush. Anyways, neither of them was living in my grandfather's country so my bubbe wasn't in any danger. However, she did have family that was being tortured there and he had family that was doing the torturing. They met in New York City, my grandfather was from a wealthy family and my bubbe was from a poor family. They were pure opposites. They even looked completely different. The point is that they met and neither of their families approved of the match. My bubbe's family called her a traitor and my grandfather's family called him … eh … there were some truly terrible things said. It wasn't just the families either. There was quite a bit of antisemitism in New York, at the time, and of course they didn't like the Germans either. So everyone was against them. They got married though. My grandfather was denounced by his wealthy family and my bubbe was forbidden to return home. But they were happy, they were poor and had to deal with some racism, but they were so happy."

"Did your grandfather serve in the war?"

Charlie scoffed, "Sort of. Because he had close family serving on the other side, they kept him in the country. He ended up watching the shore for U-... nevermind … uh they kept him away from seeing battle. Anyways, he was cutting a tree with a fellow soldier. They were using one of those really long two-person saws … oh never mind …" The story was quickly getting difficult to tell and still keep vague. "The other soldier let go of his end and the saw went through my grandfather's knees. He kept the legs, but he couldn't serve anymore."

"I don't understand. Why didn't they just fix his legs?"

"This was before they could? Anyhow, the point was that if you really wanted to be with Cecilia, then nothing would get in your way. So why aren't you with her?"

"I think she's leaving me." Garrus' voice was so quiet that Charlie could barely hear him.

"What?" Charlie shook her head. "I mean, why … why do you think that?"

Garrus buried his face in his hands and keened. "Because she told me."

"I don't understand, why did we do all of this?" Charlie hated that keening sound. She had heard it before, but never from Garrus. She was holding onto the seat cushion to prevent herself from comforting him.

"She only told me yesterday and I thought if I could convince my parents to accept her, then I could get her … back."

"That bitch broke up with you, because you couldn't give her your name?" Charlie's opinion of Lia was dropping so quickly that she could barely believe that she had even liked her. The thought of flying to Menae, storming the top secret government facility, and teaching her a lesson; briefly flashed through her mind. Charlie shook her head to clear it of the ludicrous plan, which would never work. They probably had guards or something.

Garrus seemed to study the rage flicking across Charlie's face and she felt like he could read the stupid plan forming there.

"No, she didn't say that. She didn't really give me a reason. She just said that we live too far apart and that she didn't want to live on the Citadel. I told her that I would move and I didn't care where I lived. Cecil- … she said that I would care at some point and this was … for the best."

Charlie wasn't sure what to say to that. On the one hand, she had a sneaking suspicion that Lia was right. Garrus would care about losing his career. On the other hand, he was so sad right now that it was threatening to pull her heart from her chest. Her hands twitched with uncertainty. Should she comfort him? Tell him her actual opinion on Lia's decision? Not do anything?

Garrus' piercing keening made up her mind and Charlie found herself hugging the large sharply pointed man for the rest of the trip to her apartment. She practically begged him to come upstairs and told him that he should not be alone. Eventually she tricked him into walking her to the door of the complex and Charlie paid the taxi which left Garrus stranded there. He begrudgingly spent the night at her place and when Grace came home the next morning she found them passed out on the couch.

There were empty bottles and empty packs of Ignis strewn about the place. The two of them had fallen asleep in extremely uncomfortable positions, with Charlie's barefoot stuck in Garrus' face. Grace wasn't exactly sure what had happened, but it wasn't too hard to figure out. Cecilia must have finally broken up with Garrus and Charlie had comforted him the only way she knew how, with alcohol and bad movies. Grace smiled at the two. Garrus would be alright. She didn't know how she knew, but she did.

* * *

_Author's Note: I'm sorry about missing yesterday's update. My dog, Riley, had to be put down. He was quite old and his organs were in shut down. We couldn't let him linger in the pain and he could barely move to eat or anything. Sorry. I'm not quite over it yet. I have seen so many people and animals die and it still always gets to me. Anyways, sadness and drama aside. Here is the chapter and I hope you all like it. The story of Charlie's grandparents is partially my own and partially some of my friends. The only real difference is that my grandmother's parents loooooved my grandfather. I believe the words "Oy, he's so tall and handsome. You'll make such beautiful babies, Shari. As long as Rabbi Stein officiates, I'm so happy." were uttered. Honestly, my family is so Jewish that if I was actually basing Charlie off of them she would end up being a racist caricature. _


	20. Chapter 20

_Author's note: Just in case anyone wants a refresher on the dates. Grace was born in Dec. 2162, Charlie is claiming to be born in March 2152. She got to Mindoir in 2168 and they got to the station in 2170. Thus Grace is 12 and Charlie is 23 (according to everyone)._

* * *

**September 2175**

"Char? Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did, Grace." Charlie smirked at the dishes as she cleaned dinner off of them.

Grace walked into the kitchen and put her hands on her hips. She looked decidedly unimpressed at Charlie's attempt at humor.

"Okay, fine … What is it?"

Grace twiddled her fingers together. "Why haven't you mentioned my Bat Mitzvah?"

Charlie almost dropped the dish, but caught it midair. "Uh … how do you know about that?"

Grace pursed her lips together and did a fairly good impression of Charlie's "duh" face. "I did some research."

"Why?" Charlie had never even considered the possibility.

"Well we already do all of the Jewish customs already. We keep kosher, I know you said I don't have to, but I do anyways. We keep the high holidays; Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. We even have Chanukah, after I asked about Christmas that one year. Wait … I'm forgetting some … Oh! We also keep Passover and Purim. So why are you surprised that I looked up Judaism on the extranet? I did that years ago."

Charlie raised her hands, "Okay, okay I surrender you win."

"So can I have a Bat Miztvah?"

Charlie ran her hands through her hair. "Yeah, I guess so. You understand what it means right?"

"It's what you do when you're thirteen."

"Sort of. It means that you are announcing that you are a woman and that you are now mature enough to answer for your actions. In the old days, this had legal weight. You could own land or get married or answer for you crimes. These days, well … it doesn't mean that. It mostly matters to the family and if we had a Synagogue or a Temple on this goyish station, then it would matter to them."

Charlie paused and looked seriously at Grace. "Love, this isn't the tradition of your parents. This is my tradition of my people. If you want to do this, then … it means you are joining my family too. This isn't something you do, because it's 'what you do when you turn thirteen'. If you really want to do this and formally join my religion, then I will not stop you."

Grace looked down at her feet before turning back up to Charlie and taking her hand. "I understand, Char. I want to do this, because I like your traditions. They're different and sometimes don't make sense, but it makes us a family."

Charlie did not cry, but she considered it briefly. Grace was growing up incredibly fast. She was still so tiny in stature, but she had started to develop as a woman. That was an awkward trip to the store to get a training bra, mostly because Charlie had no idea what to get. Her own puberty had felt like it happened overnight. She went to bed a short flat-chested girl and woke up with full woman breasts and giant feet. Her height didn't come till the next year. Grace though was a small slight girl with long auburn hair that swept about her face in loose waves. She looked strikingly like her mother, Deborah.

"Well, dear, we do have a small problem. Typically a Bat Mitzvah is just a giant party with a reading of the Torah. We can do the party, not a problem, but we don't have a Jewish population here and I wouldn't even know where to find one."

"Why can't I just read the Torah off the extranet?"

Charlie winced, it was an honest question, but she wasn't sure how to answer it. "Well … uh … you don't do that. We need a temple."

Grace frowned with thought. "What about Earth?"

Charlie blinked in surprise, that was a really good point. What about Earth? She had never even looked into going back to Earth. There still had to be practicing Jews on Earth, right?

"I don't know. Maybe. I'll look into it for you. If we do it on Earth none of your friends will be able to make it, though."

Grace shrugged, "We could have the party here and have the service on Earth."

"You do have all of the answers. Why do I feel like you had this conversation planned before you walked over here?"

Grace gave her a wicked grin and skipped back to her bedroom.

Charlie finished the dishes while muttering something under breath about getting played by a child. When she was finished with the chore she went over to the extranet console and started to look for practicing Jews on Earth. It was surprisingly helpful. Judaism was still actively practiced on Earth, but there were fewer synagogues and more temples than she remembered. That made sense, because it definitely felt like there were more Reform than Orthodox Jews when Charlie was last there. When she visited the individual sites of the temples, she did not like them. They were almost too Reform for her taste. There were so few of them too. It was actually very sad for her, to look at the dying embers of her religion. Charlie was struck with homesickness and longed for the late night conversations with Rabbi Applebaum. Not that she believed in God, but knowing that so few others did too; well it broke her heart. Just because she had stepped away from the belief didn't mean that everyone else should too.

Charlie was about to call one of the temples when she was overwhelmed with the sensation of being very tired. She yawned and tried to clear her head. It was only 1421 hours, she shouldn't feel this exhausted. She did have a very busy week though.

"Char, can you call Darius and tell him not to come over?" The voice cut through the haze of sleep that was threatening to take Charlie.

"What … why?"

"I think I'm going to take a nap." Grace moved to sit on the couch.

Charlie willed her eyes to stay open and flicked on her omni-glasses as she moved over to Grace.

"No, honey you have to stay awake. We … need to … get out of here." Charlie knew that she should be panicking right now. She tried to will that emotion into existence, but it was so difficult.

Grace was already asleep on the couch though and Charlie's legs gave out on her as she walked. She fell heavily on the ground and the last thing she did before passing out was to call Garrus. Charlie couldn't remember to actually talk, but she called him.

* * *

Garrus had slowly put his life back together after Lia left him. He was actually upset that he didn't pine over her longer. Life threatened to leave him behind if he didn't move on and after a little bit of coaxing, he complied. Actually, if he was being honest, everything was going great. He had solved two important murders and had arrested the persons responsible for them. Garrus moved into a larger apartment, which was a massive improvement to his old one-room flat. Of course Charlie had yet to see it … Charlie. He did not want to think about her.

Life was going so well and seemed to mock him that his relationship with Charlie was going so poorly. It was all because of that one stupid night. Garrus could not entirely remember what happened. They had watched _Fleet and Flotilla_, which Charlie had rudely giggled at the entire way through. She claimed to love his singing, though Garrus had had the distinct impression he was being mocked. After he had tackled her to his side, to keep her from pantomiming the dancing, they had stayed that way till the end of the movie. Spirits, they had drunk so much liquor. Garrus couldn't clearly remember the movie ending, but she had been soft and yet so firm … no. No. Not thinking about that again.

When he woke up the next morning the first thing he realized was that his hand was on Charlie's thigh. The second thing he realized was that he tasted and smelt just like her. It was easy to tell that they hadn't gone past a certain point of intimacy, but that was too much. Garrus left with so much haste he forgot to say goodbye and was slightly gratified that Charlie was also panicking.

Since that day, he had been avoiding her. Garrus couldn't trust himself around her, sometimes he found himself wondering if she always tasted like mint and cinnamon, but then he would slap himself and go exercise or … something. It was difficult to see her at work and not go to lunch with her or talk with her or just stand near her and do nothing. When he solved that first case, he should have been able to call her up and go hang out together. Garrus would tease her and gloat, Charlie would call him a jackass and maybe hit him. When had he become dependent on her presence?

The yawning distance between them hadn't happened all at once. It had started with Garrus needing a few days to think after that night. His head was tumult of conflicting emotions. The loss of Lia was so incredibly fresh and like a complete idiot he had jeopardized his relationship with his best friend, because he needed comfort? And did he actually feel anything for the human or was he just latching on to the first warm body that was near him? There was no doubt in Garrus' mind that he had instigated the interaction. He would be lying if he said that he hadn't considered it previously in the evening.

After Charlie didn't call him or come to visit or acknowledge him at work, Garrus was at a loss. He wanted to corner her and demand that they work through whatever had happened that night. He desperately wanted a return to normal, but he didn't want to be the first one to cave. Charlie must have been angry at him for whatever he did that night and Garrus wasn't sure what he should do to mend the situation. So he followed Charlie's cue.

Grace had been difficult to avoid. Where Charlie had silently agreed with the solitude, Grace had called him repeatedly and demanded that he come visit. It was almost impossible to tell her no and keep coming up with excuses. Eventually she just stopped calling and that was actually worse. Garrus knew he had to fix this, but he didn't know how. He didn't want to be with Charlie _like that_, but he didn't want to talk about it enough to tell her why he was avoiding her.

Garrus expelled the air from his lungs and decided that the incline on the treadmill was not high enough. He almost missed the incoming call, but answered it before the last ring.

"Vakarian." His tone was slightly aggravated since he just _knew _it was work.

Garrus heard the soft sounds of breathing on the other end and almost closed out the call. His eyes froze on the caller id though.

_Nacht, Charlotte – Personal Line._

Garrus went back to the call, "Charlie. Charlotte. **Officer Nacht.**"

The other line continued the rhythmic breathing. She was sleeping. He had heard her do it often enough. Why would she call him and then fall asleep? Accidental? No, that wasn't likely. Omni-tools didn't work if you were unconscious. Garrus stopped thinking and quickly sent a tracer worm through the call. He hoped Charlie's encryption algorithms hadn't changed.

If omni-tools didn't work when you were unconscious, then Charlie must have forced the program to continue running while she was. The woman may have been infuriating Garrus lately, but she did not do things accidentally. Charlie must be in some kind of trouble. He knew her brand of games and this was not one of them.

Garrus was already running out his apartment door when his worm reported that Charlie was at home. In the elevator, a new sound joined Charlie's breathing.

"Looks like we got both Nacht and Wallis."

"Shit, get those off of her. Break them!"

There was a horrible screeching sound and the line went dead. Garrus roared at the slow elevator and slammed his fist into the metal wall.

They had Charlie.

They had Grace.

Charlie and Grace.

Garrus decided the wall hadn't hurt him enough and slammed his other fist into the dent.

_Author's Note: Hey guys, please don't get mad at me for this interpretation of Judaism in 160ish years. If you really want to know what is going through my head, feel free to pm me. I have thought long and hard about this and I am more than happy to share my opinions with anyone. However, there isn't really a place for it in the story and some people might find it boring. :)_

_Also, Bat Mitzvah's aren't really that important, but they feel that way when you're twelve. Source: I have been twelve._


	21. Chapter 21

Charlie was slowing coming around. She had been having a lovely dream she couldn't remember what it was about, but was Garrus in it? No, that didn't make sense. She hadn't dreamed about Garrus in … well for a few months and they had not been good dreams either. She was dimly aware of a pounding in her head and that stole the last remnants of lingering happiness from the dream.

She was laying on something very hard and cold. Charlie tried to lift herself up, but found that she could not move her arms or legs. Wriggling on her side she managed to flip herself over onto her front. Pain shot through her arms as blood rushed back to the limbs. The room was completely dark. Charlie found that her arms had been bound behind her back and she could count three different knots of some kind of binding on them. Her legs were bound similarly, with a knot at her ankles and around her knees. To make movement even more impossible they had a line of rope, or wire she couldn't tell, connecting her ankles to her wrists.

Charlie was thoroughly captured. At least she wasn't gagged. She made a few small sounds to see if anyone else was in the room with her.

"Ch-Char?" The girl's voice wavered and then Charlie could hear her crying.

"Ssh … Gracie, it's okay. I'm here. Did they hurt you?"

Grace's crying stopped with a sniffle. "No, I don't think so. But I'm all t-tied up."

"It's alright, love, it's alright." Charlie had to resort to the comforting cop voice she had to use with hysterical victims, because her actual voice was threatening to break.

"They're going to kill us." Grace's voice held the dead tone of certainty.

"No. No one is going kill us, Garrus is coming. He can find us and we'll all go home."

"I can hear them. The loud man is thinking about how he is going to kill us and the other one is thinking about what he'll -"

"Grace, honey, nobody is going to kill us. We're going to go home with Garrus and we're going to plan your Bat Mitzvah." Charlie started to scoot her body in a slow and awkward crawl towards Grace's voice.

"You can't hear them, Char. I know that you can't, because I can hear you and you're thinking that Garrus had better hurry up. And you're thinking about how you are going to kill those men. And you're thinking about how I might be crazy and I'm not … **I'm not crazy!**"

Charlie had never heard Grace panic before. She was, in fact, the calmest person that Charlie knew. She was cool and collected during Mindoir. She hadn't panicked when her own mother died or when the beast had attacked them.

"Grace Talitha Wallis, I am not thinking that you are crazy. I _am_ thinking that I want to hurt the people that put us in here and I _am_ hoping that Garrus hurries up. However I know that you are not crazy. I don't know why you telling me my thoughts, but I'm sure there is an explanation."

Grace whimpered for minute and Charlie resumed the arduous trek to her. "I think I might be crazy." She heard Grace whisper.

"You. Are. Not. Crazy." Every word was punctuated with a grunt as Charlie scooted across the floor.

"How did you know you weren't crazy when you woke up on Mindoir?"

Charlie stopped moving. "What?"

"You know what I'm talking about. I know where you are from, I've always known, but it didn't always make sense. So how did you know that you weren't crazy?"

Charlie tried to move her mouth to respond to the girl, but she didn't have any words to be uttered. She just laid there awkwardly on the cold floor desperately trying to recall how to speak.

"Charlotte Elizabeth Nacht FL N145-87-590-0"

Charlie was starting to panic and could physically feel the cold dread wash over her. That was her driver's license number. When she had found it in the belongings sent to them by the Alliance from Mindoir all those years ago, she had quietly incinerated it. It was incriminating evidence. How had Grace found it?

"You must have read that at the house on Mindoir." She calmly reasoned.

"Your boyfriend's name was Justin, he had a dog named Barnabus, and you were a math major. Charlie answer my question, please. How did you know you weren't crazy? I've never even heard you think the question."

Grace's voice was starting to rise to a panic again and Charlie was forced to respond.

"I did think I was crazy. I thought I was crazy when I woke up, when I saw the purple sky, and after the attack on Mindoir. I thought that maybe this was all some elaborate dream or maybe I was making everything that had happened to me before up."

"How did you know you weren't?"

"You. You were so real; I could reach out and touch you. Also there were the smells, the pain, and all of the details that are impossible to imagine. That's how I knew that this is a real place. I can't prove that where I'm from is real, but I have too many memories for it to be false. I don't know how you are doing this, but that doesn't make you crazy. Different maybe, but hey, it's alright, we're all a little different."

Charlie made it over to Grace and nuzzled her face against the girl's.

"So, do you want to tell me how big you want your party to be? I bet Garrus is going to be so happy when he gets us out of here, that we can get him to pay for it."

Charlie was rewarded with a giggle from Grace and she sighed in relief.

* * *

"With all due respect, sir, go fuck yourself!"

"Detective Vakarian, you not leading the team!"

"I didn't ask for your permission, I'm informing you of the change in leadership." Garrus really wanted to throttle Pallin, but decorum just barely held him back. As it was, his talons itched to sink into the man's throat.

"Listen, we all care for her. She's a valued member of C-Sec. I understand that you want to find her, I would like to go myself, but we all have a place and yours is right here."

Garrus snapped his sniper rifle in place on his back and wheeled around to face Pallin. "You do not get to talk about her, like you give a shit. Nacht has been here for five years and you haven't so much as given her a raise. So fuck you very much, _sir._ If you really don't want me to go, give me a good reason. I have a perfect record on my sheet. I have handled command situations in the past and I have not one, not two, but three letters of commendation for my ability to handle stressful situations. And before you tell me that I'm too emotional to think clearly, one of those _stressful situations_ involved Charlie."

Garrus silently prayed to any spirits watching that Pallin didn't fact check his claim, as that particular commendation had been the first time he met Charlie. Garrus was well aware that he was far too emotional right now, he just didn't care.

"Vakarian … Garrus, I can't let you lead. This isn't your team and they haven't trained under you." Pallin sounded more haggard than Garrus had ever heard him. "I know you probably think I'm lying, but I've tried to give Nacht a better patrol. After the first half-dozen times, I just stopped trying. If the Council ever gave me the go ahead, I'd make her detective in heartbeat. They never will though. She's too loud. In the five years she's been here Charlotte Nacht has managed to piss off every council member and most of the ambassadors. Spirits, I think even Goyle has gotten tired of the fuss. You think Charlie hasn't been offered a raise? She has, believe me she has. The fool woman turns them down, because the only raise I can offer a beat cop comes attached to a desk job. Fuck, she has turned down awards because she was scared I might force her into a chair. That woman is the best thing to happen to C-Sec since your father, so don't you fucking think I don't care about her."

Garrus almost took a step backwards under force of Pallin's anger. It was thrumming through his words like a tidal wave.

"Now I can't go, because … well it wouldn't be good if I got shot. But you can be on the team. You do _not_ get to lead it though. I meant what I said. It would jeopardize the mission and I'm not going to let her die, because some punk detective wanted to play the hero."

Garrus nodded his head. "Thank you, sir. I'll get her back."

* * *

"Yeah, pretty much. I mean normally I can't hear people's thoughts, unless I'm trying, and I can only ... well it's kinda like I feel their emotions. I don't know. It's kind of weird. Of course when someone is sleeping it's easier to hear fully formed thoughts and humans and turians are the easiest to hear. Asari are almost impossible and salarians go far too quickly to make anything intelligible out."

"Wow, so is that why you used to sleep with me?"

"I think so. I don't really remember, it was a long time ago. But you have some really odd dreams. They are full of people and places I don't know. It's fascinating."

Charlie shook her head with amazement. Grace was amazing. How had she not figured this out already and what the hell did it mean?

"I was scared you would send me away." Grace whispered.

"Of course I wouldn't send you away. No one is taking you away from me." Charlie nuzzled Grace again.

Nobody had come by to see them yet and it had to have been hours already. Charlie wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not, because Grace said she could definitely hear them.

"There's somebody new now. I don't know who he is, but he is really mad at the other two people out there." Grace's voice sounded distant, like she was listening to a conversation.

There was a loud metallic creak of a door being opened, that cut off any follow up question Charlie had. The sudden exposure to light blinded Charlie to the appearance of the intruder.

"Ah good, you're both awake. Time to join our little party." It was the voice of a middle aged man, with a distinct southern accent. The drawl was almost too thick to make out the words and Charlie was struck by how long it had been since she heard that style of voice.

"Why don't you tell us why we are here?" Charlie had to work at making her voice stay meek. All of her hostage training told her to let the criminal feel like he was in charge and to stay as non-threatening as possible.

"Sorry, not goin' to do that just yet. Want to get y'all together, first."

Hands were roughly dragging her away from Grace and Charlie could now see the fear in the girl's eyes. She forced herself to stay calm, knowing that Grace would understand her even if she couldn't use the words.

She was dragged through a narrow hall and recognized the plain walls as keeper tunnels. At the end of the hall was a room and Charlie was thrown on the hard ground.

"Why don't you acquaint yourself with your new friend? I'll be right back with Talitha."

Charlie did not like his manic grin and empty eyes. A chill ran down her spine. She looked awkwardly around the room to find the other occupant and saw a large turian who was trussed up in a similar fashion as herself.

"I see I finally have company." The dry quality in his voice was not lost on Charlie.

"How long have you been here?"

"A week, I believe. But it's hard to tell. They keep moving me around."

He shuffled his body back and forth, till he could see her face. Charlie stifled a gasp. There weren't many turians who had the unusual elongated cheek spines or the enlarged forehead plate. The turian's face had so many harsh angles, that he looked even more alien than the average turian.

"Saren." Charlie spoke the name like a dark prayer.

"I prefer Spectre Arterius, but you're still correct. Do I know you?"

"No, I don't believe so. I'm Charlie Nacht."

Saren flicked his mandibles in surprise. "_Officer_ Charlie Nacht?" After seeing Charlie's nod, he continued. "You have a knack for finding Spectres, Nacht."

"Nihlus told you about me."

"Yes, my little student seemed to think you had potential. Clearly not enough to avoid capture."

"Well they got you too and I'm not a Spectre. How many are there? I've counted only three."

"That's all I've seen, as well."

"Damn. How did they orchestrate this with just the three of them?"

Saren scoffed, "Obviously there are more of them, child."

Charlie heard Bill call from the doorway, "Nope, just the three of us. Glad to see you two gettin' along so well. I've got a present for ya." He threw Grace awkwardly on top of her.

"Now we don't have much time, so let's get down to business; shall we?"

"Human bastard, let us go. What kind of monster kidnaps their own young?" Charlie shot Saren a glare and tried to will him to be quiet. "When the council finds out what you've done …"

"Yes, I know. 'I'll pay'." The man pointed at Saren. "This guy is as much of a broken record as he was in the game. The difference is that now I can do this." The man kicked Saren in the chest and when he started wheezing, the attacker bubbled up insane little giggles.

"Why don't you tell me why you took us?" Charlie said in her very best "talk calmly to the crazy man"voice.

"Oh you would like that wouldn't you? Who the fuck are you anyways? You shouldn't be here, but here you are anyways fucking up the motherfucking timeline!" The man's voice seemed to only have two levels; either insane southern drawl speaking softly or equally insane southern drawl screaming.

"Excuse me?"

"See I'll start at the beginning, 'cause I have to know who the fuck you are. We're all dead anyways. I kept a special eye on Mindoir, hoping that Shepard would come out of there, right? See there were three places she or he could start. There's Earth, or a spacer kid, or Mindoir. Now the first two are pretty hard to watch closely, 'specially since an Earth kid meant that Shepard was an orphan. Mindoir though, that's easy. So when I heard of the batarian attack on the colony. Boy howdy, I was damn happy. I had finally found Shepard. But do you know what happened?"

He reached down and pulled Grace up by her hair. At Charlie's cry of protest he gave her a kick in the ribs and continued to drag Grace away.

"I found out that two people survived. Two! There was only supposed to be one survivor and it was supposed to be Shepard. That's why it's called the **SOLE SURVIVOR**!" The man stomped his foot and then raised Grace up to meet his eyes.

"And you, Talitha. You're supposed to be an enslaved bitch right now. You're supposed to be being brainwashed by some batarian scum and then Shepard can either choose to save you or let you kill yourself." He tossed Grace across the room to the other man who was staying quiet and was wearing a hungry smile. "Go ahead and do what you will with her. She's not important."

"No!" Charlie could not let that happen. "Wait, I understand. This was all game, right?"

"Don't you fuckin' patronize me, whore!" The man roared at Charlie and gave her another kick.

"It … was called Mass Effect, am I right?" Charlie gasped trying to catch her breath after the brutal attack. "BioWare?"

The crazed man took a step backwards and blinked at Charlie.

"If Gra- … if _Talitha_ gets hurt, I might not be able to tell you what I know." It was a pretty big gamble.

"You can't give me ultimatums."

"You're right, I'm in no position to do so. You are in charge, here. But if you let the man do anything to her, you'll have to kill me before I stop struggling."

The man seemed to understand Charlie's logic and directed the other man to put Grace back near Charlie.

"What's your name?"

"Bill is enough for you. Now it's my turn. When you first came from Mindoir, I thought you might Shepard. Maybe you changed your name, in the future. It was exciting, but then you fucked everything up. Who are you?"

"You already know my name. I'm from Florida and I was twenty-five when I got to Mindoir. I was just a poor college student. There wasn't anything special about me. What part did I mess up?"

Charlie could see Saren out of the corner of her eye; he was staring at her like she was crazy. She really wondered how, if they got out of here, she was going to explain all of this away.

"Let's see I first saw the mistakes when I noticed that Goyle had added you to the short list of future Spectre candidates. There were other names on there as well, but your name stood out to me. The first big mistake was when Officer Harkin was fired. He was important, why did you get him fired?"

Charlie blinked in surprise. Harkin? Harkin was in the game? "Uh … he tried to rape one of the prostitutes and I got her to give a confession."

Her answer was rewarded with a slap in the face. "Harkin was supposed to get fired during the first game and he was _supposed_ to become the Fade in the second game. He was important to Garrus' loyalty mission!"

Charlie did not remember that. She could vaguely remember Garrus' loyalty mission, he was supposed to kill someone or … damn this is why she wrote down everything a while ago. She had to keep him talking and if he was talking about her, then he wasn't harassing Grace. Charlie could taste the blood pooling in her mouth from her cut lip, but she swallowed it down and kept speaking.

"What else did I mess up?"

"Thane."

"Thane?"

"You do fucking remember him, right?" Bill sneered at her.

Charlie mentally kicked herself. "The drell assassin that got away, that was Thane."

"Good fucking job there, by the way. Would you like to know how you fucked up that one?"

"Yes, I would." _No, I would not._

"First of all, there was the problem with Mouse. You remember Jon, the little orphan you convinced to go back to school? Well before grand ole Nacht swooped down from on high to save the Citadel's whores and duct rats, he used to run with a gang and called himself …?"

"Mouse, I remember."

"Good to see you're paying attention. Well if Mouse had still been around, then Thane would have gotten better information regarding his targets. As it was, he only managed to pull off one of his assassinations that night. I don't know exactly how many more were planned, but if you hadn't injured him it was going to be more than fucking one.

"And that's not even the worst part of that night. Hey Spectre Asshole, what did Nihlus tell you about Officer Nacht when he got back from the mission?"

Saren, who was clearly less than thrilled to being included in this insanity, grumbled. "He said that Nacht had Spectre potential."

Bill clapped his hands at the news. "You. Certainly. Know. How. To. Get. Attention." Every word was punctuated to a kick somewhere on Charlie's body. She was very glad that she was used to taking abuse on the sparring mat. Otherwise she might not have been able to keep from passing out.

"Shepard was supposed to get nominated by Nihlus not your sorry ass."

Charlie was caught between gasping for breath and choking on the blood pooling in her lungs.

"I have been here for over thirty years and I have stayed out of sight. I went to school and got a degree. I worked for a while on a defense contract, but I never once fucked with the timeline. You have been here for only six years and it's rapidly going to hell. All we had to do was sit on our damn hands until 2183 and watch it all play out, but that wasn't enough for Charlie Nacht was it?"

"What did you work on?" _Just keep him talking, Garrus is coming… he'll save us. He has to._

"Just some VI, well more of a modified AI, god she was perfect." Bill's eyes glazed over for a moment.

"She?" Charlie had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Well, of course, VIs don't have gender, but she always felt like a girl. She wasn't meant for anything special, just a defense program to intelligently handle turrets. I never told them that she was an AI, but it's not like they'll figure it out. She's not even aware enough to know it herself."

_No. He … no. That doesn't make sense. _

"I'm surprised that the games didn't turn you off of AIs."

Bill gave her an odd look. "Why because of the geth? They were the only AIs ever mentioned and I never even saw any until the third game."

"No, that's not right. What about Rannoch?" Charlie blurted out before she could will her mouth closed.

Bill's odd look deepened and Charlie could see anger building there. "The quarian homeworld? The fuck does that have to do with anything? Shepard goes there and brokers peace between them and the geth, but they're kinda nice. Why the fuck would the games turn me off of AIs?"

An alarm interrupted them and the other man, not Bill, pulled up an image on the screen. It was from a camera placed high on a ceiling and showed seven SWAT members rushing by.

"Dammit all, they're early." Bill growled in frustration.

"Garrus." Grace whispered and Charlie shook her head to stop her from saying anything else.

Bill snapped his head towards Grace. "Garrus? Garrus Vakarian? Which one is he?" The last question was directed Charlie, who stayed silent.

"I. Asked. You. A. Question." Again every word was accented by a blow, but this time Bill had lifted her up and was striking her face.

Charlie spit the blood out and glared at him with her first display of defiance. "I'm not telling you."

He sneered at her and then turned the look into disgust. "Were you one of those Garrus fangirls that pined over him? Disgusting. Is that why you've been getting close to him? To play out all of your sick fantasies? **Stop fucking with the goddamn timeline!**"

Charlie was extremely offended by the implication. During her first and only play through the games, she had romanced Kaidan, then Thane, and then Kaidan again. Charlie had never really seen the appeal of Garrus, he was always too busy to talk in the second game. All of that flashed through her head in an instant though, as Bill dragged her across the room to the screen.

"If you don't tell me which one he is, then I'll kill them all."

"You wouldn't kill Garrus, he's a party member."

Bill gave her a sneer. "He's an _optional_ party member."

Charlie was torn, but only for a moment. Bill was going to make good on the threat, she knew it. Charlie gave a quick look at all of the men and immediately knew which one was Garrus, even though they were all wearing identical armor.

"The third from the left, I gave him that mod for his rifle."

"Good job, I knew you'd come around." Bill had a wild grin plastered on his face again and Charlie's stomach soured. "Ooh watch this, you're goin' to love it."

Bill entered a command into the console and all of the turians in the vid clutched their helmets and started screaming. The sound they were making was the most horrible thing Charlie had ever heard. It sounded like a death cry.

"Spirits, stop it." Saren had a slight keening trickling through his voice.

Still grinning, Bill continued on like nothing horrible was happening. "See I have hacked into their translator chip. It wasn't even that difficult. Well developing the software to do it took some time, but now I can control it like that." He snapped his fingers. "Right now their brains are slowly cooking. Can you believe that people _willingly_ put chips in their brains? Oh don't you worry, little dove, Garrus is only going to be knocked out. We'll get your boy toy up here soon enough."

Bill made a small motion at the other man and with a grunt he left the room. He then dragged Charlie back to her original spot and unceremoniously dropped her there.

"Since C-Sec decided to move up my schedule I'm going to need to make this quick; do you know where we are?"

None of them answered, so Charlie ventured. "In the keeper tunnels?"

"Well … yeh, but do you know what we are under?"

The three prisoners were silent.

"We're under the Presidium, guess where?"

"The relay monument." Charlie whispered the words and realized that Bill was also a complete fool on top of being crazy.

Bill clapped his hands with feigned joy at the right answer. "Since you have shot the Mass Effect timeline all to shit, I figured it was time for me to take matters into my own hands. So, I found all of the key players. Talitha," He lifted the girl again, though this time he did so with a grip on her arm. "You should either be dead or a slave and it's too late to make you a slave. So dead it'll have to be."

He dropped her back on the ground. "Saren, I'm just going to kill you before you go completely crazy. You haven't found Sovereign yet, right?"

"You're insane!" Saren bellowed.

"Well that's not very nice, but I'll take it as a 'no'. Ah Mr. Vakarian, you decided to join our soiree."

A conscious Garrus was pulled into the room. His limbs had already been bound, though he was fighting the men dragging him.

"You just killed six cops … you are not leaving here alive! Where are Charlie and Grace? Fucker if …"

"Garrus. We're right here." Charlie had to cut him off, because getting angry at these men was not a good idea.

Garrus whipped his head around trying to find her, but the angle made that impossible.

"Oh I see you have succeeded in making Garrus love you, how fucking sweet." Bill appeared to be amused by the exchange and that deeply disturbed Charlie. "Put the lovebirds together."

The two kidnappers left Garrus next to Charlie and Garrus turned his head to say something to her.

"Shh." Charlie told him before turning back to Bill. The man had gone back to the control panel; she had to get him away from there.

"I was enjoying the talk we were having before." Charlie attempted.

"Oh yes, where was I?"

"You were telling me why we are under the relay monument."

"Well I thought that much was clear. I'm going to blow it up."

"But the whole station is a relay."

Bill grinned suddenly, crossed the room, and crouched down in front of her. His face was far too close to her own. "That's why I'm disabling the entire station. Tell me how many keepers have you seen recently. We are in their tunnels and yet I haven't seen a one. Have you, Jayson?"

"No." Came the reply from the other kidnapper.

"You see, I realized that blowing up the whole station is too difficult. So instead I've been slowly killing off the keeper population. Did you know that without the steady maintenance of the little bugs, that the station will be completely without power in a few weeks and in a few months the reactor will nova?"

"Why would you do this?" Saren asked.

"Because then the Reapers can't get to our galaxy from dark space and, of course, it would kill off the Catalyst so that's a bonus. Try to keep up, Spectre."

Charlie had a different question. "What did you do to the keepers?"

He shrugged. "I knew that the protheans could communicate with them well enough to get them to ignore the signal, so I just had to find the right frequency. Now they are infected with a virus that causes them to believe they are in peril and they will self-destruct. Simple really."

"Then why take us? I don't understand what we change."

Bill walked over to a table and picked up a Kessler pistol. "Because I had to make sure that certain people were caught in the blast, namely Saren and you. Jayson, Peter, and I are also going to die today and so is everyone in this room."

"No." Charlie spoke up, she had a plan, but even if it worked … she wasn't getting out of here alive. Maybe Grace would though.

"What did you say, bitch?"

Charlie pulled herself into an awkward kneeling position. "You shouldn't kill them, because they belong here. We don't. What happens if Shepard doesn't defeat Saren? She won't be able to handle the Collectors and you know the Reapers are still coming."

"Liar! With the Citadel destroyed they can't get here."

"Does that sound like it would really stop them? You were right; I have messed up the timeline. We both have and we don't belong here. So, kill me instead. Kill us both and then we'll both stop messing up this universe."

"Charlie, no." Garrus' voice was low and pleading, but Charlie had to ignore it.

"We've already messed it up too much now." Bill was protesting, but Charlie thought she could see him turning towards her plan.

"Did you find the real Shepard?"

"Yeah, she's the Butcher of Torfan." Bill bore a wistful smile. "That was always my favorite."

Charlie suppressed a shudder. "Good, then she'll be able to handle whatever comes. Grace can live. Garrus can live. And Saren has to live if the timeline is to be restored. We will die together."

"Agreed, you die now." Bill clicked the safety off and placed the barrel to Charlie's head.

"Let them go first." The cold metal pressed into her forehead, but Charlie kept her eyes locked onto Bill's.

Bill laughed. "Why? I'm still going to destroy the Citadel. That train has no brakes. However, you were right, Charlie Nacht, you don't belong here."

The air started to tingle and then there was a burning sensation on Charlie's skin.

"**I am not losing another mom, you son of a bitch!**"

Charlie did not recognize the distorted voice, but it sounded vaguely feminine. Grace?

Before she could give much thought to this, Bill, Jayson, and Peter were pulled together by a blue light. The air was still crackling with the energy and Charlie thought that she could hear a rushing sound. The men were screaming and throwing colorful strings of expletives at them as they struggled fruitlessly against the invisible force caging them.

Their faces began to shift from rage to pain and Charlie could see thin red lines start to form under their skin. Bill's eyes seemed to bug out and Charlie had to look away as the flames that originated from inside his body leapt out and consumed him. Chunks of charred flesh fell from him and were pulled towards the center of the tangled bodies.

The blue light started to falter and Charlie, who had fallen forward on the ground after Bill was pulled away, found that she could move her arms and legs. The air was filled with the stench of burning flesh and she gagged on the putrid smell.

Charlie heard Garrus yell, "Grace!"

She moved her hand under her and managed to pull her body up off the floor, but her midsection was burning. Looking down she saw blood pooling around her side and with a groan Charlie clamped her hand on the gunshot wound. When she finally saw Grace, thoughts of her own pain left her.

Grace was convulsing on the floor and was bleeding from her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.

Charlie limped over to the girl, flipped Grace on her side, and checked her airway for blockages. She was still breathing though, just having a violent seizure.

"Charlie, we're still tied up." Garrus' voice seemed a little distant, but she pulled her mind back to the present and stumbled across the room to help him.

"You're bleeding!" Garrus observed as Charlie struggled with the bindings.

"I noticed." Every syllable was laced with pain.

"He shot you!"

"Again, I noticed. There, get your own legs." Charlie tried to stand back up to go back to Grace, but her legs didn't cooperate and she landed on the ground with a cry.

After he was done freeing his legs, Garrus moved to help Charlie up; but she waved him off. "Get Saren, first. We need to leave."

Charlie crawled back to Grace, who had finished convulsing and was lying on the ground with her eyes rolled back and lined with red blood. Charlie sighed in relief, when she felt the still beating pulse. Garrus and Saren were arguing about something and it was difficult to pay attention to the men.

"We have to stop the bomb." Garrus was standing by the control panel and was furiously typing at it.

"It's already too late for that. We need to leave. Now." Saren wasn't yelling, but there was a quiet command to his tone.

"Fine, you get them out of here. I'll stop the bomb."

"Alright."

Saren moved over to the women and put Grace over his shoulder. When he lifted Charlie to a standing position, she pleaded. "No, Garrus. You can't stay here."

"Charlotte, it's a really big bomb. If it goes off, then it could vent atmosphere to the entire Presidium. That's too many lives lost." He didn't look up from the panel he was working on.

"I'm not letting you stay here alone. I'll stay with you. Let me go, Saren." Her weak attempts at a struggle were ignored completely by the large turian.

"I won't be able to carry your fat ass out of here when I'm ready to go." Garrus finally turned to her. "Charlotte, you can't give me orders. I _can_ give you orders, get out of here. Saren, you better fucking leave before she bleeds out."

Charlie wanted to cry and protest, but she could see the wisdom in Garrus' words. She had gotten shot, again. She was in no position to stay and in even less of a position to assist him. As they moved quickly through the tunnels, the irony of her situation was not lost on Charlie. Saren Arterius, the arch-nemesis of Shepard, was saving her life. Charlie might have laughed if it wasn't so painful.

* * *

_Author's Note: So this was a huge chapter and an equally huge pain. It was incredibly difficult to get everything Bill tells her just right, but I think I did it. I hope it came out alright and you guys like it. This was kind of a big event in the story. By the way, Charlie's driver's license is actually what her number would have been if she was a real person. It was stupid, but I wanted it to be accurate so I used an algorithm I found online. Yay! Something that doesn't matter is accurate. :P_

_Also, I realized about 100k words after I initially wrote this that I totally messed up when Shepard becomes the Butcher. As I would have to severely edit my story. I'm going to pretend that the Skyllian Blitz happens earlier than 2176. If you think about it it totally doesn't make sense that the Alliance would commission the Jon Grissom Academy and place it over Elysium the same year it's proven that Elysium isn't very well protected. It's crazy. So, for the sake of continuity with the story, try and pretend for me that the Blitz happened just a few years prior to the date given in the game._


	22. Chapter 22

"Crap."

It was like something out of a bad vid, if Garrus had the capacity to do so, he would have been sweating. The first thing he did was to find his confiscated omni-tool and upload the contents of the console to the C-Sec cloud network. Then he spent minutes trying to access the ignition subroutines. Bill, who was now a pile of bones and smoldering ash, had been extremely paranoid and a much better programmer than Garrus. Even the technicians at C-Sec were struggling. Between them all they had managed to prevent all of the explosives from detonating except for one. The one that was directly under the Relay Monument, which was also directly above Garrus' location.

"We've got five minutes on the count, you need to leave now." The tinny salarian voice told him.

"No, I can do this."

"Vakarian, get your ass out of there." That was the grating voice of Pallin.

Garrus growled once more at the screen before turning and running down the hall. It wasn't difficult to follow the path Saren took. He just needed to follow the trail of blood. Garrus stomach turned with the amount blood that Charlie must have lost.

_Dammit, the fool woman did it to herself. She provoked a mad man._

That wasn't fair and he knew it, but he was so angry and the only people he had any right to be angry at were dead. And he hadn't been the one to kill them.

Garrus was a good distance away when he felt the explosion. The vibrations in the walls and floor, knocked him briefly off his feet, but he was up and running again.

* * *

Charlie woke up in a hospital, again. This time wasn't the pleasant ride into awareness, where individual senses gradually made themselves present. This time was a sudden jar into consciousness, there was pain and smells and noises and lights all at once. Charlie thought that she might sick from the sensation, but she swallowed it back down and peered around at her location.

It could have been the same hospital room from before, but this time there were quite a few people occupying the room. It looked like they were mostly hospital staff, but she spotted two out of place faces.

"Hackett."

The admiral stopped speaking to the turian and looked over at her.

"Nacht."

That was when the hoard of doctors descended on her and Charlie had to bat their arms away from her.

"No, you are not putting me under again. I'm awake and I feel fine. Back off." That was definitely a lie. She felt terrible, but Charlie didn't want the vultures to know that. She had questions.

Hackett and the turian, who turned out to be Pallin, made their way over to her bed after the doctors left. The admiral cleared his throat and gestured to her chest.

"Son of a bitch," she swore as she quickly covered her front with the blanket. Apparently they had still been working on her.

"Okay I'm decent. What's going on?"

"The bomb went off under the Relay Monument." Pallin growled.

Charlie heart skipped a few beats. "Garrus?"

"He's fine. Vakarian managed to keep the explosion to a minimum and got out with only a fractured leg and some scratches."

Charlie breathed a painful sigh of relief. "Good. So why are you two here? Is it Grace? She was alive when we left."

"It is partly about Grace, yes. However, that is a conversation we will have alone." Hackett said with a nod to Pallin.

"We're here, because there is a human female who is going to speak with you and we need to talk to you first. Apparently this," Pallin looked down at a data pad. "Emily Wong is going to do an exposé on you."

Charlie blanched.

_They know, oh shit, Saren told them about my conversation with Bill. What are they going to do me? _

If he noticed her fear, Pallin didn't acknowledge it. "Apparently the report Saren gave the council regarding your tactics with the terrorist, William Trevinsky, was leaked to the press." Pallin shot an accusatory glance at Hackett, who slightly shrugged. "Anyways, Wong seems to want to incite the human civilians to protest you having not made detective already. Congratulations, political maneuvering is giving you a promotion." His tone was desert dry.

Charlie blinked and had to swallow to moisten her suddenly dry throat. "Sir, you know this isn't how I wanted this. I had nothing to do with this … scandal."

"Regardless, you have the promotion. Remember to tell Wong that you were promoted due to our _gratitude_ of saving lives and mention how much you enjoy working for C-Sec and blah blah blah. You get the point."

"Executor, could you give us a moment?" Hackett told the turian.

"Actually, I have one more question." Charlie put in quickly. "What about the keepers? Bill said that he had reprogrammed them or something like that."

Pallin looked back at the datapad, but his eyes didn't seem to be reading the words there. "Honestly, we're not sure what is going on with them. We've never been particularly knowledgeable about their biology or communication abilities, but they seem to be fine. I don't know if Bill's experiment failed or they just … got over it. We have some xenobiologists talking about how the keepers' visible population has been waning in the Bachajaret Ward, which was where Trevinsky had been residing. However, the keepers were the first on the scene of the explosion and have been working on rebuilding the site. They even rebuilt the monument. Anyways, the current theory, as far as I understand it, is that the keepers perceived Trevinsky as a threat and have been giving him a wide berth. Whatever the reason, they appear to be fine."

Hackett gave the executor a pointed look and a small gesture towards Charlie.

Pallin nodded, but before he left he put a hand on Charlie's shoulder. "I'm glad you didn't die."

"What's going on with Grace?" Charlie baldly asked the admiral after Pallin had left.

Hackett took a seat in a chair next to her bed, before he answered. "Apparently she is a biotic. Do you have any idea why that is?"

Charlie had already figured that out, but she hadn't given much thought as to how Grace gained her biotic abilities. Charlie shook her head and voiced the same.

"No."

Hackett narrowed his eyes at her, trying to pull the truth from her. However, Charlie was telling the truth.

"To the best of my knowledge, a human can only become a biotic if exposed to element zero. I'm fairly sure that Grace wasn't, sir. I definitely didn't know before today."

"I was really hoping that you would have some answers." He sighed.

"Where is she?"

"Grace Wallis is being held in a secure facility while we wait to transfer her to a school."

"You cannot take her from me. She is mine. I signed the papers; I am a C-Sec Officer. You can't do this!" Charlie pulled herself up in bed, ignoring her protesting torso.

"Officer Nacht, she has undeveloped biotic potential. We absolutely can take her and make sure she doesn't harm anyone. From Vakarian's and Arterius' reports she used a pull on three men simultaneously, held them in place possibly with a singularity, and lit them on fire from the inside. I have never heard of a more impressive and _dangerous _breakthrough."

Damn the man, he had a point.

Tension and anger were still riding hard in Charlie's muscles. "I don't know of a human biotics program that isn't needlessly cruel. If you put her in BAaT, I swear to god I will …"

Hackett held up a hand to stop her tirade. "It's not BAaT, Nacht. We have a new program that we are starting up. The Alliance wasn't going to have it go live until next year, but we're jumpstarting it early. The Ascension program at a new school called Jon Grissom Academy. It's not going to have the militant focus of our previous programs and Grace _is _going to attend."

Charlie glared at the man. Hackett was doing what he promised he wouldn't, he was taking Grace away. Damn it, she had just finished promising Grace that this would never happen.

"Can I see her?"

Hackett shifted in his seat, but didn't respond.

"You're going to take a twelve-year-old girl away from her home and not let the closest thing she has to a parent see her? That doesn't sound good, Hackett. Emily Wong might even agree with me."

He stared at her, anger flickering in his eyes. "I've been told she is too dangerous without supervision."

"Grace? Dangerous? The girl is scared of spiders, but she won't even kill _them_. I have to do it. She may not be in complete control of her body, but she is not dangerous. Unless you happen to be holding a gun to my head, that is. So unless you are planning to do that and I promise that she will be the least of your concerns if you follow through that course of action. You are letting her say goodbye and then I am going to get permission to visit her at least once a month."

"It's not that I want to keep the two of you apart but until we can assess the extent of her abilities; that's how it has to be."

"I don't accept that."

Their conversation was interrupted by a loud turian voice, Charlie knew so well, shouting angrily at someone at the door. "I told you I have C-Sec authority and you are letting me in."

The door swished open and Garrus quickly stepped through. He stopped and looked at the conversation between the admiral and Charlie.

"Ah perfect timing." Charlie grinned at Garrus. "Garrus, do you have an omni-tool handy?"

"Of course."

"Good. Find where the Alliance is holding Grace and get me some clothes. We're leaving."

Garrus glared at Hackett before turning to the cabinets to find Charlie a dressing gown.

"You cannot be serious, Nacht."

"As a heart attack, Admiral. I told you that I'm seeing her off. I apparently can't stop you from taking her, but you can't stop me from saying goodbye, unless you wanted to shoot humanities first C-Sec detective? My guess is that you don't."

Garrus came back with a long "gown" that was more of a long sleeveless shirt. "That'll do nicely, thank you."

Garrus carefully ignored Charlie's momentary nudity as she got dressed. He was focused on his omni-tool.

"Interesting, Grace Wallis is actually in Huerta, level 4 room 12." Garrus spoke after a moment of tapping on the screen.

"What's level 4?" Charlie's voice was slightly muffled by the fabric.

Garrus leveled a hard stare at Hackett. "Psychiatric Care."

"We don't know how Grace will react emotionally to seeing you." Hackett was standing now.

Charlie seemed to consider this point and looked up at the towering turian. "Garrus, do you feel at all concerned with our safety in the vicinity of Grace?"

"Not even a little bit, Charlotte. I mean unless someone points another gun at your head, but then I'd just be concerned with their safety."

Charlie's grin was triumphant. "Exactly what I said. Now give me your hand I'm getting out of this farkakte bed."

"Nacht, you just got out of surgery!" Hackett's words came too late as Charlie sunk to the ground with a groan. Thankfully her descent was stopped by Garrus.

"Sorry big guy, looks like you're going to carry me. Let's go."

Hackett followed the two the entire way. He was actually making some good points. Mostly concerning not stopping for a wheelchair or how Charlie was probably going to need surgery again to fix whatever damage she was causing. However, Charlie couldn't help but acknowledge that he was also right about Grace needing to go Grissom. She was extremely grateful that Hackett was going through the trouble of getting Grace into the academy, but every maternal instinct told her to fight for Grace. So that was what she was doing.

The hospital staff on Level 4 were a little surprised at the odd procession of people, but they steered clear of them. At the door to Grace's room, Hackett waved Garrus and Charlie through the Alliance soldiers who were standing guard.

Garrus stopped before entering the room. "Do you want me to go in with you? I could put you down and then leave." His nervousness made Charlie chuckle.

"Shut up, Vakarian, we're going in there together. I think Grace likes you more than me anyways."

Her humor was rewarded with a smile and together they entered the room.

* * *

"I'm not going hurt anyone else, I promise. Please let me out!"

Grace struggled against the bindings of the bed. It was frustrating that she couldn't remember how she got Char free. She had been so scared when Bill had put the gun up to Char's head. Before it happened Grace had had to block out the men's thoughts, they were so powerful and hateful and insane. Bill's had been the loudest of them all; his emotions had threatened to drown her.

So Grace kept quiet and occupied her brain with thinking about school. Chemistry and Physics had been giving her trouble lately. When Bill grabbed Char, however, Grace reacted. She didn't know how she did it, but she did know what it was that she did. Grace first had to make the men get closer to each other, so she made a gravity-well in a specific area and pulled them together, Grace didn't know how she prevented everyone else from joining them, but she did … somehow. It felt natural. Like when you tie your shoes without thinking, you don't sit there and purposefully make loops and knots … you just do it.

The only part that Grace had really had to think about was when she set them on fire. Grace had always thought that fire was a really interesting chemical reaction. It was so basic to survival and people had been doing it for thousands of years. So she started the oxidation process deep inside of them, at first she didn't do it quickly enough for a good burn. So she sped it up. Grace became so focused on the process that she forgot to listen to the thoughts around her.

The first foreign thought wriggled through the crack of her determination and it was Bill's. The intensity of the emotion that bore it was so powerful that Grace almost let the wall of her determination crumble right then. He was begging her, begging Grace to stop hurting him. She almost did, but Grace could also feel Char next to her and that woman's pain was caused by this man. He deserved death and worse.

Grace let the memories of her mother's death and Jess' death fill in the cracks of her wall and she redoubled her efforts. When they had died, she couldn't do anything. She was too young and the best she could offer was to stay quiet. But now, now she was powerful and no one would hurt her loved ones again.

The power was draining though and Grace was slipping. She didn't remember hitting the floor and she didn't remember how she got Char free. Grace's last thoughts had been to help the woman, but then everything went dark. Well that's not true. She could still hear, not with her ears though.

When she could finally open her eyes, Grace was in this room. Nobody came to see her, but she could feel them through the walls. Occasionally someone would talk to her through a comm. system, but they kept asking questions that she didn't know how to answer. Grace didn't know how she did those things or why she could do them or when she was exposed to eezo. The only people she could feel outside the room were frightened; there was just so much fear. To have that fear be directed at her was something new to Grace and she hated it. Had she done something terrible? Yes, but it had been in self-defense. Surely that meant it was okay. Right? Grace thought back to the last contorted agony fueled thoughts from the men she had killed and remembered exactly what she had done to them. Maybe she was a monster.

She felt a break in the emotions and then there were two people singing in harmony outside the room. Grace knew these people. Their emotions weren't always in harmony, but when they were … it was almost terrifying.

The door opened and Garrus and Char stepped in. He was carrying Char and Grace was immediately concerned for the woman.

"They have you tied up? Garrus, put me down on the bed and deal with this." Char barked the order.

Garrus growled at her, but complied. "Grace, you are lucky I love you so much. If you were anyone else I would have dropped that woman on the ground and left the room." He glared at Char over the glow of his omni-tool. "It's still tempting."

Grace laughed in spite of herself. Relief flooded her body seeing the two of them there. They wouldn't leave her here and they would all go home together.

"Are you okay, honey? Did they hurt you?" Char's voice was low and dangerous. Her hands were moving across Grace's face and searching for injuries.

"No, they just left me here alone. They're scared of me." The bindings clicked open and Grace sat up in bed and made room for Garrus to sit on the other side of her.

They sat quietly for a moment, while Char hugged her tightly and Garrus gently patted her head.

"Can we go home?" Grace asked tentatively.

The much larger adults shared a look over her head.

Charlie spoke first. "Actually, you are going to a special school. There are other kids there and the teachers will help you control your biotics."

"No, I'm supposed to stay here with you. I have a project that I'm supposed to finish with Darius. He can't do it by himself, he'll forget something and then it'll be ruined. And his nameday is coming up and I'm supposed to be there when he accepts his colony markings. Mya and her mom were going to take me out shopping for a dress; you know I don't have anything decent anymore. I can't leave. I have to stay here, people _need_ me here."

Grace knew that she was rambling and didn't care. This was completely unfair.

"Grace," Char's voice had a rare soft quality that usually made her feel better, but right now it had the opposite effect. "I promised you that nobody would take you away from me. I'm not breaking that promise. I will come see you all of the time and, even if Garrus and I have to break into the school and kidnap you, you will get to come home as well. However, you are so smart and strong and gifted, that you need to have teachers who are just as gifted to help you. This is not a punishment and if anyone at the school does anything, and I do mean anything, that you feel is wrong … then you tell me and I'll take care of it."

Grace didn't respond, her mouth had decided to stop working, so she just sat there and looked at her hands.

"I'm sorry I haven't been over for a while." Garrus' voice was a soft rumble beside her. "But I promise that I'm not leaving now. If Charlie will let me, I'll come with her and we'll visit you together. And, just in case they don't let you have the extranet, I'll make sure I bring over a copy of that month's 'Rend of Time'."

"Did you watch the last season?" Grace couldn't help the excitement that slipped into her voice.

"Of course, spirits, it was so good. I thought they were actually killing off the Professor this time."

Char made a snorting noise. "I can't believe you guys watch that. 'Doctor Who' was _so _much better. The Professor is a hack."

"The graphics on that show almost made my visor give up its spirit." The retort from Garrus had them all giggling for a brief moment.

"Can we still have my Bat Mitzvah?" Grace hazarded after the laughing had died off.

"Of course, I can probably claim some 'freedom of religion' farkakte and get you to Earth. Just act as Jewish as possible while you're there to really sell it." Char gave Grace a playful nudge of her shoulder.

Garrus snorted. "So she should be bitchy, tell really bad jokes, and if anyone gets too close she should hit them?"

"Why is she going undercover as you?" Charlie's retort was quick and dry.

There was a brief moment of silence as the adults looked at each other. "Well played." Garrus conceded.

Grace felt so at ease with the banter. She had missed them acting like this around her. She had missed the competitiveness that the two always exhibited with each other. It didn't matter what they were doing, it was always a competition. It might look mean-spirited on the outside, but Grace knew better. Though she had never been able to figure out what had caused the rift in the past few months. Both adults felt guilty over something, but it almost felt like a completely different kind of guilt for the two. It didn't really matter now; they were making jokes which meant they had made up.

The pair stayed for a while and the conversation slipped between party plans and quietly talking about the horrible day. It felt natural and easy. When they finally left, Char promised that the bindings wouldn't be put on her again. Grace was left alone again, but at least she knew now that it was only temporary.

* * *

_Author's Note: Hey guys, sorry I missed yesterday. My sister's wedding is coming up and my parents keep swooping in unannounced and dragging me off to plan for it. By the time I got home I was too tired to edit the chapter. So I will post two chapters today. The next chapter is kind of short anyways._


	23. Chapter 23

_Author's Note: Hello, this is the second chapter I'm posting today. So if you haven't read Chap. 22 yet, go back a page. _

* * *

Garrus carried her back to her room and put her back in bed. Charlie was starting to believe that she had somehow managed to bypass the "talk" and they had gone straight back to being friends.

"Charlotte, we need to talk." Garrus sighed as he took a seat in a chair next to her.

_Shit._

"Okay." She replied. Her voice was so quiet that she could barely hear it.

"I'm sorry that I have been avoiding you."

_Wait, why is _he_ sorry?_

Charlie remained silent, because she did _not_ want to have this conversation. The door was only a few feet away and she eyed it while wondering how far her legs would take her.

Garrus sighed with impatience at her continued silence. "Look, I'm pretty sure that we did some … stuff that night. I don't really remember anything, but I've felt really embarrassed and I didn't know what to say to you. So, I'm sorry. I should have just talked to you about it."

_He doesn't remember. Should I tell him?_

_Why would you tell him, are an idiot? Look, he's giving you an out. Take it!_

"Nothing happened that night." Charlie said the words too quickly. "I mean, I was sober enough to remember everything. We just got drunk and fell asleep on the couch. I figured that you didn't want to pay up on the deal we made and that's why you've been ignoring me."

_Please don't call me on the lie. / Please don't call me on the lie. / Please don't call me on the lie._

"Really?" Garrus abruptly started laughing and looked extremely relieved. "Oh thank the spirits, I thought I had kissed you or something. I've been so worried. I woke up the next morning and I tasted and smelled like you and I presumed the worst."

Charlie wracked her brain for a possible reason. "Well you really wanted to try my scotch ..."

Garrus snapped the pads of his fingers together. "That explains it. Well I guess that's that then. Back to friends?"

He held out a hand to Charlie, who gladly accepted it. The past several months had been a special kind of hell for her and she desperately wanted her friend back. Even if she felt like a villain for not telling the truth.

"So you really thought I was just ignoring you so I didn't have to pay for lunch?"

"Uh, no, but I don't know … I'm not really good at the whole … talking thing." As awkward as the sentence was, it was the truth.

Garrus laughed in her face and retorted. "You talk so much that you should be a master at it by now." He smugly noted Charlie's glare and added. "I'll accept that though. I'm just glad we're talking again. I'll come by and see you later."

With that he was gone and Charlie was left alone with her traitorous thoughts.

She really didn't want to tell him the truth, so she dug her hole a little deeper and lied.

* * *

**9 months ago – Charlie's apartment **

"That movie was … awful."

"What are you 'alking bout? This is a classic." Garrus' words were slurred and he was relying on his exaggerated arm movements to get the point across.

"We didn't even see her face! I wanted to see a quarian face. If I had paid money for this, I'd ask for it back." Charlie was drunk enough to be extremely loud and if she had had to walk around … it probably wouldn't have gone very well, but she was in control of her actions.

"That's the whole point! He doesn't need to see her … um … face."

"Well that's really romantic. How are they are going to kiss, let alone fuck?" She scoffed.

"Not e'erything is 'bout sex. And kissing is gross." Garrus made a disgusted face at the human and asari ritual.

"No it's not! It's awesome. Come here."

Charlie was drunk enough to think that this was a fantastic idea, even though sober Charlie would later regret it. She yanked Garrus' cowl down and pressed her lips against his mouth plates. Charlie was a little stymied by the hard surface, but managed to wriggle her tongue between them and found his. God, he tasted so smoky sweet. Garrus' arms, which had been flailing about in surprise, wrapped around her body. His talons softly scrapped along her back.

This was not what Charlie had planned when she kissed him. It was supposed to be a joke. Garrus was supposed to push her off and then they were going to laugh about it. But this … this was different and Charlie was suddenly and painfully aware that she hadn't been this intimate with another person in such a long time. It wouldn't be so bad if they did something, right? It didn't have to go past the night and she had had her fair share of drunken trysts. Charlie knew the drill, don't ever talk about it and pretend everything is normal. Maybe it happens again, maybe it doesn't.

Garrus stopped kissing her, but didn't move away. Instead he dipped his head down to her neck and began nibbling her gently on the skin.

"Cecilia, why are you so soft?"

Charlie clearly heard the words. Garrus was drunk enough to mistake her for his ex-lover. She should stop him; she should not take advantage of his inebriated condition. This was extremely wrong.

But his arms, even as sharp pointed as they were, felt so good around her. Someone giving her the physical attention that she hadn't even been aware that she was missing, Charlie wasn't even sure that she could pull herself away. It was Garrus though, her absolute best friend, and with a great effort that her body protested; Charlie tore herself away from him.

"No, please don't go away." He pleaded with her. The quiet keening quality eked back into his tone.

Charlie knew she had to leave and get away from him, but when his arms pulled her gently back … she followed. He pulled her into his lap and resumed his delicate attentions to her neck and shoulder. This was definitely wrong; Charlie had never even considered Garrus as a potential lover. It was true that she was lonely, but this was the equivalent of rape, right? No, she was a cop and she knew that this really bad and she should stop this right now.

Her mind was made up, but her hands and mouth were treasonous and marked their own trail up and down the side Garrus' face, neck, and fringe. Charlie never let their faces go any further than the shoulders and hands were only allowed above the waist, but even with her rules she still felt like a monster. However, she was a monster who just wanted to be held and loved for one night. It was just one night.

In the morning when Garrus looked so scared and fled the apartment, Charlie locked herself in her room and cried. She had fucked up everything. It was her fault and she was a monster. Every time he dodged her in the halls at work or refused to meet her gaze or quickly left the room when she entered, that was her penance. Charlie didn't know how to make it right or if Garrus would ever forgive her, but if he never did … then that was what she deserved.

* * *

_Author's Note: Hey guys, so that happened. I realize that this is ... conflicting. It's supposed to be. I struggled with this chapter, because it's ... conflicting again. I am interested with how this is perceived by readers, so if you have any strong opinions, please PM me. _


	24. Chapter 24

**Present day - Huerta Memorial Hospital**

Emily Wong was pacing outside of the hospital room. A large turian dressed in a C-Sec uniform had just passed her and had been carrying an extremely underdressed woman. When the pair disappeared into Nacht's room, Emily was surprised to say the least. This woman was Nacht? Emily had been expecting the classic stoic gruffness that was typical of cop and military types. What kind of woman traipses around a public hospital in a short dressing gown in the arms of a turian? This was definitely going to be interesting.

When the turian reappeared he turned to leave, but instead rounded on Wong. He was extremely tall, even for a turian. However, even Emily's short tenure on the station had been long enough to, at least, not look frightened by seven and half feet of plated turian.

"Are you the reporter Emily Wong?" His tone wasn't quite as harsh as she had been expecting and she was surprised by the charismatic air with which he spoke the words.

"Yes, I am? And you are …?"

"Detective Garrus Vakarian." The detective held a hand out for her to take and he had a surprising delicate yet firm grip. Exactly the right amount of pressure. Emily was starting to wonder whether she should skip the Nacht interview and get one with him instead. Vakarian definitely seemed full of surprises.

"Are those Officer Nacht's clothes? Would you mind if I check and make sure they brought the right size for her? She is very particular about such things and I would hate to have you get off on the wrong foot by such a careless blunder." The extreme sincerity threw Emily for a second, but she willingly gave him the suit on the hanger. Vakarian checked the tags for the size and then handed them back to her.

"All correct. I really must be leaving, Ms. Wong, but good luck on the interview." He took her hand again and in a quick fluid motion bowed his and placed his lip plates briefly against her skin. And then he was turning around and he was gone.

Wong stood there for a moment longer. Her face was an extremely unprofessional shade of bright pink and she had to compose herself before following the swarm of doctors into Nacht's room.

The scene that was revealed in the room almost made Emily leave again so that she could laugh loudly in the hall. Nacht was surrounded by doctors and nurses who were each yelling different things at her. Apparently, Nacht was not supposed to have left the room and had succeeded in rearranging her insides. Nothing life threatening and it was all easily correctable, but still damaging. That wasn't very funny though, what threatened to bring laughter from Emily was Nacht's face. She was pouting. A very childlike pout, complete with her arms crossed and lower lip stuck out. How was this woman part of C-Sec, let alone a detective?

Eventually the doctors finished their machinations and pronounced Nacht fit for the interview.

"Excuse me? Right now?" Nacht's voice was a little deeper than she would have guessed and the emphasis on the syllables struck Emily as familiar and foreign. She had heard this accent, but she couldn't quite place it.

"Yes, right now." She called from the door.

The sea of hospital staff parted to fully reveal Nacht to Emily. She stood there awkwardly with her camera waiting on staff to leave. Emily took the moment to study Nacht's features. She guessed that the woman was considerably taller than she appeared propped up in bed, six feet maybe. Yes, it would be a good idea to keep her sitting down. Human audiences will sympathize better with a weak looking cop. Her face was oval shaped and seemed to be composed of large features. Emily wondered if the woman was gorgeous or hideous, because she was definitely not pretty. Pretty people look pretty in most lights and expressions. This woman with her black curls sticking up haphazardly around her head and extremely large eyes and crooked nose was not pretty. Between the scars that canyoned Nacht's face, shoulders, and arms and the well-defined musculature, Emily wondered if the woman was actually just terrifying. But the eyes held the light of femininity and Emily realized that the woman could either be gorgeous or terrifying depending on her mood. Exotic or dangerous.

"Officer Nacht or should I say Detective Nacht?" Emily gave Charlie a lopsided grin.

"I'm told I'm now Detective Nacht, but Charlie is just fine. I'm a little underdressed for an interview. While I'm sure that Citadel would just love to get a peek at my naughty bits, I'm not sure how that furthers human interests." Charlie glanced that the ceiling and chuckled. "Never mind I just answered my own question."

Damn, the accent was still eluding her, but she was narrowing it down. Definitely North American, but maybe it was somewhere in New York or New Jersey area?

"Actually I have the top half of your uniform with me. I would rather have a shot of you in the bed, if that's alright. It sells the whole injured cop image."

Charlie shrugged. "Oy, why not? I actually am an injured cop."

Emily was helping Nacht get dressed when she realized where she had heard that accent before. It was an old accent, really old. When Emily had been in journalism school, she had taken a film class. The class was mostly a joke, the students would sit in the hall and watch old movies and then write short critiques on them. Emily had taken it as an easy A. The stated purpose of the class was to understand the culture of the period through their comedy. In some of the older films from the 20th and early 21st century there had been a character archetype that would often appear and Charlie sounded like a watered down version of that. Like in the old Mel Brooks comedies. But it was odd, because that accent didn't really exist anymore. Who was this woman?

"Before we start I would like to get some specifics. You're Emily Wong?" Charlie interrupted her thoughts.

"I am."

"What kind of questions are you going to be asking me?"

"Well where is the fun in that?" Wong said with a cheeky grin.

"The kind of fun that doesn't end with me breaking your camera." Charlie reached into the coat pocket and gave a soft chuckle. "Let me guess, you ran into Detective Vakarian in the hall?"

Emily frowned at her. "Yes."

Charlie smiled and fitted a device on her left arm. "I assumed as much. He doesn't like me going into the field unarmed."

She activated the omni-tool and deftly skated her fingers across the orange glow. "Now, if you decide that you want this interview to be a pleasant experience, then we will both walk away happy. However, if you start asking me questions that are aggressive or purposefully misleading, then you can leave but your camera doesn't. Oh and don't think that the additional camera in your brooch is going to help you either."

Emily blinked at her several times before snorting under her breath. "I think I understand why you weren't made a detective till now. Actually now I'm concerned as to why you were ever made a detective."

"Clearly because I'm a lovely and charming woman." Charlie dryly responded. "Now, tell me you what you want to get out of this interview. You must have an agenda."

Well, this isn't what she had expected, at all. Emily looked at Charlie and was confused at how a person can make humor and candor intimidating, it worked though.

"Well this isn't how I like to start, but fine. I want you to tell me about working for C-Sec. I understand that you are probably under orders to say that it's all cotton candy fields and flowers, but I would like something meatier than that. I also want to discuss the bombing with you and that mission with Spectre Kryik. Anything else you would like to add that would make you seem more … human, would be appreciated."

Charlie tilted her head to the side as if considering this, and then nodded her head. "Alright I can do that. Make sure you ask me about my adopted daughter I rescued from Mindoir. She's a biotic."

Emily's eyes widened with hunger. "And you want to talk about that?"

"Oh yes, I would _love _to talk about her."

The interview took two and half hours and was one of the best interviews Emily had ever given. Charlie was able to go into great detail on the missions without actually saying anything inappropriate. The woman did seem to have an agenda though and was very good at directing the conversation towards that purpose. However, Emily was perfectly willing to discuss turian-human race relations and the inappropriate bias against human biotics. This wouldn't necessarily play well with a crowd, but Emily could see awards dancing in her eyes.

Emily did notice that whenever she tried to direct the conversation towards Charlie's past, the woman deftly steered away from the topic. This intrigued Emily, but she really didn't want to risk damaging the interview. There was little doubt that the woman would make good on her threat.

* * *

It was walking into the empty apartment, which truly made everything real for her. Charlie had been in the apartment alone before, but it was different knowing the Grace wasn't somewhere in the building and wasn't going to come home. Charlie carefully blanked her mind of thoughts and emotions and she woodenly set to packing Grace's things for her. She debated over whether to pack the keyboard she had given Grace last year for her birthday. The girl almost never played with it and it was rather large. In the end, she put it in the pile to bring to the docks, simply because it amused her to make the Alliance's job that much harder as the instrument would require special and delicate handling.

It took a while to pack Grace's possessions, to grimly sort through which items the girl would need and which she would want. It took a while, but not long enough. Before too long she was sitting alone on the porch smoking an Ignis and pondering which problem to tackle next.

Charlie settled on figuring out what Bill's revelations meant, because if she was going to think about Garrus … she'd need a drink.

First, was he just a giant liar and simply a crazy man? Charlie dismissed this immediately. Crazy? Yes. A liar? No. There were just too many things that he knew that he shouldn't. Charlie had done some extensive research when she first came to the Citadel on her time period. Pretty much everything was the same. Charlotte Elizabeth Nacht had been born to a Rachel Mariah Nacht in 1987. There wasn't a lot of information on that Charlotte, but she had graduated high school and college. She had married Justin and had two children. It was so odd. Everything she remembered had happened. Her mother had … died at the same time, in 2002 when Charlie was only fifteen. She couldn't tell if that Charlotte had also been injured, like she had been, because it all happened so long ago, but everything seemed to be exact. It had been painful to see what could have been. The only real difference was that Mass Effect had not been made. BioWare existed, but the game did not exist in this universe.

So Bill wasn't a liar, which made some of his other predictions … odd. The largest discrepancy was that no AI had existed in his games. Charlie really wished that she knew who he had fought during the whole first game, if it wasn't the geth. There was also the problem that he hadn't had EDI. She was such a large portion of the second and third games. The thought occurred to her again that he had mentioned that he had developed an AI that acted like a VI and the Alliance had it.

_What if he created EDI?_

_But that would mean that the game I played in my universe included him and that would … really make my head hurt._

_Oh, I'm sorry it's so hard for you._

_Jackass._

The implications were very disconcerting. Was she going to be included in some other parallel universe game? No, that was stupid. This was really happening. It was not a game.

Existential problems aside, Bill had actually given her some good information as well. Now Charlie could count on the events of the first game starting sometime in 2183 and she could find Shepard. Charlie had definitely heard of the Butcher of Torfan, that story was still making the rounds on the news. She thought that she may have chosen that as the background for her Shepard, when she played the games, but it was a very long time ago.

A little research into this universe's Shepard revealed that she was a consummate soldier type. Her skills were non-biotic and largely non-technical. Janice Shepard was much more likely to kill everyone and maybe ask questions about why later. That was … troubling. Especially considering everything the woman was going to have to accomplish in the future.

The last bit of information was more annoying than helpful. Apparently everyone had singled Charlie out for potential Spectre training. Charlie really did not want to become a Spectre. Not because she was afraid of the challenge, but because she could be a little crazy sometimes and she leaned heavily on rules to keep her from doing something unwise. If she was suddenly given the ability to thumb her nose at the rules and do what she felt needed to be done; well that could, and probably would, end horribly. No, she had to make sure that Shepard got the endorsement and she was left alone in C-Sec.

Charlie spent the next few days pouring over her old notes and comparing them with what Bill told her. She had another month of leave from C-Sec and so Charlie decided to spend the time working on the puzzle and ignoring everyone and everything else.

* * *

Charlie Nacht had lied to him. Garrus wasn't a fool and Charlie was a truly horrendous liar. It bothered him that she lied, but it was worse not knowing what she had lied about. Garrus decided to assume that he had done some things with her that night, but that she wanted to forget about it. That didn't feel like the normal Charlie he knew. His Charlie loved to talk about things and she could talk them to death. However if she was willing to move on and be friends again, Garrus was completely on board that train. That night would just become a big mistake and neither of them would ever mention it again.

What was bothering Garrus, was that Charlie had not called him once since getting home from the hospital a week ago. He had tried calling her and she didn't pick up. Charlie hadn't even responded to his messages. Clearly she was upset, as she had every right to be, because Grace was gone. Garrus knew from many past experiences that Charlie did not take loss well.

So Garrus found himself in front of Charlie's apartment door. He didn't have much of a plan, but it was the best one he could come up with. He considered just walking in, like he normally would, but opted for ringing the comm. bell.

A minute later the door opened and a blur shot out of the entrance and pinned him to the wall. Once Garrus was able to focus on the woman he saw that she was a very bedraggled Charlie with a pistol pointed at his head.

"Charlie."

Charlie eyes focused and she withdrew the weapon and let him go. "Garrus." Her voice was as tired as she looked.

Garrus pulled himself up straight and tried to regain some of the swagger in his stance. "Can I come in?"

Charlie looked into the apartment with a wary glance and finally said. "Sure. You could have called first."

"I did. Several times in fact."

Charlie mumbled something about muting her omni-tool and Garrus slipped into the apartment. The first thing he noticed was the overpowering smell of stale cigarettes. Apparently Charlie had started smoking the house. A glance at Charlie revealed her pulling a lit cigarette out of an ash tray to continue smoking it. The living room and the kitchen were a disaster, Garrus had no idea how she had managed to let everything get so filthy in only a week of living alone. The couch looked like Charlie had been spending most of her time and nights on it. There were data pads, tools, and assorted clutter circled around the piece of furniture like a technical bomb had been dropped on it.

Charlie sat down heavily on a cushion and threw a pack of Ignis at him.

"Charlie, you don't smoke in the house."

"I didn't, but I guess it doesn't matter now." She said with a shrug.

Garrus took a cigarette out and lit it. "You'll lose the deposit."

She gave him a wry glare. "My daughter and I were just kidnapped from this complex last week. No alarms were triggered and no footage of the event. They should be glad I'm not suing them."

"Not to nitpick your plan, but I don't think that'll actually work."

"I get myself a good volus lawyer and it will definitely work."

Charlie picked up a data pad and stared furiously at it. "Why are you here? I'm a little busy."

Garrus tried not to take offense at her tone. He had never seen her like this; Charlie was acting paranoid and sloppy. Neither of these were traits she normally exhibited.

"I thought I'd get you out of here. Maybe talk or something? We are supposed to be friends again."

Charlie didn't look up at him. "I can't I'm busy, maybe another time."

Garrus stood there awkwardly in the apartment for a moment. Then it occurred to him how to make Charlie come out.

"Have you been down to the Armax Arena lately?" He asked casually.

_Take the bait, Charlotte._

"No. I think the last time I was there was with you, actually." She took the bait, but still didn't look up.

"Oh, then I guess you don't know that I have beaten your score?"

Charlie gave the briefest of glances towards him. "Single player or doubles?"

He had her now. "Doubles. Team score, in fact."

"Who?" Charlie's voice was low and dangerous, exactly what he was hoping for.

Garrus leaned on the counter and took a slow drag. "Oh, you probably wouldn't know her, works as a receptionist at the office. Not very impressive, but _she_ can point a gun the right way."

Charlie stood up and abruptly walked towards the bedroom. At the doorway, she stopped and looked at him. "I know you're lying to me, but I'll take the hint and come out. I'm kind of gross though, so I'm taking a shower first."

Garrus nodded at her and waited till she left. As soon as he heard the water start to run, he quickly picked up the room. He glanced at the pads she had been working on, but they were all locked to tampering. He probably could have unlocked them and looked anyways, but Charlie had a right to her privacy. She may have infuriated him from time to time, but he still respected her secrets.

When he heard the bedroom door start to open, he quickly took a seat on the couch and tried to look as nonchalant as possible. Charlie looked around the clean room and sighed. She was dressed in her usual jeans and black sleeveless tank top. After some digging in a drawer she adorned her usual omni-glasses.

"I thought yours were broken." Garrus asked as the orange glow briefly hid her eyes before dimming once more.

She shrugged and replied, "I always have a backup."

Charlie still seemed out of sorts, but Garrus felt confident that he could bring her back. There was a glint of metal around her neck and he smiled when he realized it was the necklace he had given her. Yes, he could definitely make Charlie right again.


	25. Chapter 25

At the Armax Arena, Garrus was soon coming to the realization that he was mistaken. Charlie had not killed a single batarian enemy. She hadn't been injured either, but she was clearly not trying to win. Garrus was getting extremely frustrated with her performance. So he started giving all of the enemies she was focusing on headshots. Usually, this was the point where she would call him a "kill stealer" and threaten him with violence, but she didn't.

"You're going to have to do better than that, Charlie." He taunted.

"Okay," Was her lackluster response.

What was wrong with her? The entire trip here, he had tried to engage her and she had just ignored him. Occasionally, he caught her pained glances at him. What had he done to her? Had he done something really bad that night months ago? Garrus knew she would never tell him what was wrong unless he was able to draw her out and this was usually the best way to do that, by appealing to her competitive nature. Spirits, she was usually more competitive than he was.

"You did really well." Charlie gave him a weak smile after the round was over, that Garrus immediately hated. Who was the meek stranger and what had she done with his Charlie?

"You want to go again?" Garrus asked hoping for a positive response.

"No, I think I'm good for now."

Charlie took off her helmet and shook her loose curls out. She hadn't even broken a sweat.

In the lobby, there were a few young men standing around in gear. Clearly they had the next turn in the room.

"Well lil' darlin' that's not very good score. This your first time?" One of the men asked Charlie. Garrus noted that he was tall and broad shouldered, definitely the type of human male that was supposed to be attractive.

_This is going to be interesting. I might have to hold Charlie back from killing this man, but that might be a nice change of pace from this meek Charlie I brought with me._

"Actually, yes it is." Garrus looked down at Charlie sharply. She had drawn her shoulders in and had shifted the shotgun in her hand so that she was holding it loosely and unprofessionally at her side. Though it was her voice that was the most shocking, she had pitched her voice up and was almost speaking shyly and _sweetly._

"I think I did alright though. At least I didn't die _this_ time, right?" She continued. "I'm trying to get better. I think I hit some of them. Whoops!" Garrus watched as she dropped her shotgun and let the human male pick it up for her.

"Good thing you weren't using live ammo, so what's your name?" The man put Charlie's gun on a table and sidled up to get closer to her.

"Elizabeth, what's yours?" Since when had she started using her middle name? Garrus was having a difficult time keeping up with her.

"Lieutenant Daniels, Alliance Navy."

"A real Lieutenant? I've never met a Lieutenant before." Then she giggled. Garrus had heard Charlie laugh in a multitude of ways in the past, usually at her own jokes or at another's expense. But giggle? No, Garrus had definitely never heard that noise come from his friend. How was Daniels buying this terrible façade?

Daniels motioned towards the people behind him. "Actually, we're all in the Navy. So what were you doing in there with this … turian?"

The way he said that almost elicited a growl from Garrus, but he stopped himself when he noted the glitter in Charlie's eyes and the subtle shift of her smile to a slightly evil grin.

"This is my friend, Garrus. He was trying to show me how to properly use a gun, but I'm still no good at it." She pouted, and then lit her face up as if an idea had just occurred to her. "Maybe if some big strong Alliance soldiers could show me, then I would understand." Garrus noted the way Charlie ran her hand up and down the soldier's arm, as if testing the muscle corded there.

"Oh, well I'm sure we could do that. What did you have in mind?" Daniels managed to stammer out.

"Why don't I just go ask Mr. Ellocious if this can be a two-team game, you strong men against us? I mean we'll probably lose, but then it'll be fun. We could play for a round of drinks?"

"Um, are you sure that's fair? I mean we have a biotic with us and it's only the two of you?" Daniels looked over Charlie's form as if expecting to find another squad member hidden there.

This was when Garrus realized that Charlie looked rather unassuming in her black, form-fitting, light armor suit. The suit was standard gaming suite armor that would shut down any limb that had been hit. However, it was very tight and seemed to hide the fact that Charlie was in excellent shape and a force to be reckoned with even without a weapon. In the suit, she could have just been any other slender human female and that almost made Garrus laugh out loud.

Charlie put her finger on her lip as if contemplating his words. "Well to make it fair, what if we are allowed to use tech abilities. Garrus can do a really cool thing where he makes your shields disappear? What is it called?"

Garrus couldn't help the smile that crossed his face at the completely innocent look Charlie was wearing as she gazed up at him. "An Overload?"

"I guess that's okay, then. Sure you two can use tech against us. Kay is our only biotic, but he's really good."

The second he said that the two of them could use tech abilities, Garrus noticed that Charlie's fingers started working furiously at her side. He had seen this enough to know that she was remotely accessing her omni-glasses.

"Oh goody, is this your helmet?" Charlie picked up the helmet sitting on the table and turned it over, while making intriguing noises. "It's very nice. I'll go check with Mr. Ellocious at the front desk and change the queue on the room. You did agree that we're playing for drinks, right?"

"Of course." Daniels boldly ran a hand down Charlie's backside and Garrus braced himself, in case she retaliated. She didn't, in fact she flashed the Lieutenant a seductive smile.

Garrus was not exactly sure what Charlie was up to, but she was acting like her old self and that made him feel so much better. She had clearly found a game and was playing it. Garrus spent the time she was gone by checking their equipment. None of the soldiers spoke to him, but he did note their appearances. They were all fairly young and arrogant, except for the one they pointed out as the biotic. He seemed out of place, not just in age as he was a few years older than the rest, but also in manner. Kay was standing separate from the rest of the group and seemed a little more cautious than the rest. He was also suspiciously watching Garrus, as if he suspected that this was a trap.

Charlie came bouncing back and proclaimed the match all set. Daniels graciously let them go into the large room first, since they were woefully outnumbered by the six soldiers. Once inside, Garrus turned to Charlie.

"So, what's the plan?"

"To kick their smug asses." Charlie had flicked open her omni-tool and was now furiously working on … something. "I need you to hack into the lights. Don't worry I told the clerk what we're doing. He okayed it, provided we put everything back when we're done."

"We're cheating?" Garrus opened his tool anyways and went to work on the lights.

Charlie let out an exasperated sigh. "It's not cheating. I asked the _Lieutenant_ if I could use any tech skills and he said yes. If he didn't want something like this to happen, then I'm sure he would have mentioned it."

Garrus snorted, "I'm sure he would love to get you alone in the dark."

Charlie didn't look up, but did punch him solidly in the arm. Garrus wondered what it said about their relationship that physical violence made him feel better.

"So, if I'm working on the lights … what are you doing?"

Charlie giggled, but not the falsely sweet one from before, this one was pure Nacht. Vicious and disconcerting. "I hacked into their speakers and right now I am setting up a program that will blast extremely loud music, of my choice, into their headsets. I completely bypassed their radios and unless they have a very good tech expert with them … they're stuck listening to my sweet ass jams. It would even take me a while to completely back out of their system. Personally, if I were them I would shut down the whole thing and reboot from system, but they can't do that in the field."

"So our plan, which is totally not cheating, is to blind and deafen them?" Garrus asked dryly.

"Precisely. If you have a problem with my methods and don't want to put some Alliance assholes in their place, then say so now."

Garrus finished with the lights and turned to Charlie. "Oh I don't have a problem with this at all. In fact, this might be the greatest game we've pulled together."

Charlie gave him a wry grin out of the corner of her mouth. "Better than the 'fight' we had in front of last year's recruits?"

Garrus chuckled at the memory. They had spent over a month choreographing the twenty minute "fight". It was the perfect blend of theatrics. Charlie did fantastical flips and twirls about him and he kicked and threw her across the room. None of the blows actually hit them, as it was staged, but they had included props and fake blood. By the end, they had both "died" and the recruits were horrified at the spectacle. It was absolutely worth all of the preparation and clean up.

"Even better," he responded with complete sincerity.

Garrus and Charlie took careful positions around the room. The room was multi leveled and very large, with many raised platforms and fantastic places for cover. Garrus took up a high position in the back of the room as a sniper perch. There was a better place available, but it was the obvious spot to look for a sniper and this one had better access to the floor. As Garrus did not like to stay in one place for too long, this was definitely ideal. Charlie took up a loose position in the middle of the room. Her tactic was to move and move frequently. She wasn't stealthy, but she didn't need to be as she hit hard and hit fast.

When the crew of seven soldiers sauntered into the room, both of them were completely out of sight. Charlie waited until the Alliance soldiers spread out a bit before giving Garrus the signal to hit the lights. Through his visor, Garrus could see the soldiers start to panic and bring up their omni-tools. Charlie had sneaked around to the closest soldier and was about to tackle him from behind, when she hit the music.

The scene that unfolded was hilarious. The soldiers grabbed their helmets, but couldn't remove them as they would auto-lock in place as soon as the door shut. Charlie quickly disarmed the first soldier, shot him in the legs and arms to prevent him from moving, and slid the guns across the room.

They were purposefully not supposed to kill them, the fun was to disarm them and leave them helpless. Garrus was sure that if Charlie could have, she would have stripped them down as well.

"Now I hope all of you boys are enjoying my music. I picked it out especially for you." Garrus heard Charlie announce into the radio. "I'm already up by one on you though, so I would regroup for a better attack if I were you. Otherwise, it's just not fair."

Garrus saw that the men seemed to have gotten their bearing and had flashlights on their omni-tools. Charlie climbed onto one of pillars and peered over the side of it.

"What do you see, Charlie?" Garrus asked on their private channel.

"The biotic hasn't lit up, yet. I've got five of them huddled together over here. You see the sixth?"

"Got him."

Garrus lined up the shot on the wayward soldier and skillfully shot the man in all four limbs. It was kind of an amazing shot to precisely hit a flailing man from across a room, especially with a quick reload needed. However, Garrus was kind of awesome.

Meanwhile, Charlie had to guess at which man was not the biotic. With a wild stab in the dark she jumped on the man who was the easiest to pull away from the others. She angled her descent to place her hands on the back of his shoulders, to throw him off balance, and roll with him away from his companions. In the scuffle that followed he managed to get a few rounds off with his assault rifle, but she easily avoided the fire. Charlie could, after all, see in the dark with her omni-glasses. Thankfully, the tinted glass on her helmet hid the orange glow. The soldier managed to get the shotgun away from her, but she still had a pistol and he was easily disabled.

"That's three for us and none for you. What's wrong? I thought you were going to teach me how to fight? After all I'm just a little girl." Charlie mocked them after she had skipped back into cover.

"I'm moving up. I don't have a shot and you're having all of the fun down there." Garrus laughed into their channel.

"Roger that. I've still got no biotic. He's very good if he isn't taking my bait."

"Don't come from up high this time. They're looking for that now. I've got an idea. Come around to my position."

His plan as he quickly told Charlie, was to slip around the side of the cover the soldiers were using. Charlie would shimmy out and latch onto the legs of the nearest man and Garrus would yank them both back. It was crazy and foolish, and absolutely fun. Obviously it was not a tactic to be used in any other situation, but for this type of tomfoolery … it was perfect.

Garrus could hear Charlie giggling as he pulled her backwards with her prize. The man would probably have a sizable bruise on his backside tomorrow. The entire maneuver happened so quickly that Garrus and Charlie were able to disable him and make off with his weapons before he comrades followed after the kidnapped soldier.

Laughing and slightly out of breath, the pair watched the last two soldiers duck behind a different piece of cover.

After they composed themselves, Garrus said, "Well either he's not a biotic or he's playing it safe. Any ideas?"

Charlie glared at him through her helmet. "I'm not the planner. My plans consist of going over there, picking a fight, and hoping I can make it out in one piece. Got anymore brilliant schemes?"

"No, not really. We have to split them up if we're going to continue to non-lethally disarm them. How about you 'accidentally' get seen by one of them and I'll pick off the other one."

"That would work if one of them wasn't a biotic."

In the end, they decided to go ahead with the loose plan. Mostly because they had to do something and it was the best idea they had between them.

Charlie crept over to the men and Garrus stayed in the dark shadows ready to strike. She let herself be seen as she darted through the soldiers' flashlight. The soldier on the right spotted her and sent an arc of waist high rifle fire in the direction she was moving. Barely managing to dodge the spray of fire, she skidded to a halt behind a low piece of cover.

This was when Garrus saw the biotic. A bright blue light engulfed the man who had been firing at Charlie and he waved his arm out in her hidden direction. That was odd, because there was no way the man could see Charlie. Nothing happened for a few seconds after the arm movement and Garrus was starting to shift out of cover to grab the biotic's companion. However the biotic's head snapped to look directly at Charlie through the darkened room. Garrus was about to shout a warning to her, but a streak of blue energy leapt from the man and hit her before he could react.

Charlie was flying. Well more accurately, Charlie was being pulled through the air towards the shining blue man. She had a few seconds to consider her predicament and found it utterly hopeless. No amount of shifting would enable her to draw a weapon or escape the force.

"Charlie shut your eyes!" Garrus shouted through her helmet speakers. She immediately complied and could see a bright flash underneath her eyelids as the room was suddenly brightly lit and then plunged again into darkness.

The blue light surrounding her was extinguished and Charlie landed heavily on the ground and quickly rolled into cover.

"You alright?" Garrus asked out of breath into the radio.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Good job with the lights, but that biotic is going to be a problem."

Garrus moved over to Charlie's location. "I took out the other one while you were playing with the biotic."

Charlie groaned at Garrus as they shifted to another piece of cover. The biotic was able to track their location now and moving continuously was the only way to avoid getting hit.

"You still have that tech armor?"

Charlie grimaced under her mask. "Yeah, but it makes me glow so I haven't been using it."

"Alright, I want you to get close to him. That'll probably mean that you have to rush him. We'll split up and attack him from two directions. As soon as I see you're close enough, I'll take care of his shields and then you get up close and detonate the tech armor. Hopefully we'll be able to tackle him down then."

Charlie gave a quick nod and they set off. The main problem with biotics is that they usually have two sets of shields. In a normal combat situation, they would just whittle down the soldier's shields and finish him off, however this was a game and Charlie really wanted to keep everyone alive for humiliation reasons. The other reason she didn't want to "kill" anyone was because when you "killed" in the arena your entire suit shut down, including your headset. Charlie wanted them all crippled on the ground and listening to her deafening tunes until _she _allowed them to get up.

This soldier was good, very good in fact. He had positioned himself in a very defensible position in the field. There were only three ways to get to him and he was routinely checking each one of them. When the pair had split, it seemed that the biotic couldn't keep track of both of them. Charlie crouched down behind some cover about ten yards away from her target. She heard the slight whine of her tech armor shift into place and with a deep breath, Charlie bolted for the biotic.

The soldier saw her immediately and raised his right hand to shoot her and his left hand started to build a blue glow of energy. Charlie was half-way through her sprint and was starting to wonder if Garrus was going to hit the man, when a spark of electricity crackled over the biotic and he stumbled for a second. He did not waste any time in sending whatever had been building in his hand at Garrus.

Charlie ducked low and hugged his waist, as she slammed his body to the ground. She wasted no time in detonating the tech armor while she was still directly on top of him. While he was momentarily stunned Charlie got the pistol out his hands. Biotics, especially human biotics, are not known for having close combat skills. The majority of human biotics are powerhouses at controlling a battlefield, but if you get one alone, they're fairly weak. So Charlie was amazed to see the man block her attacks and actually succeed in flipping her over and pinning her to the ground. However the shock only lasted for a moment when her instincts kicked in.

Charlie wrapped her legs around his waist and used her strong core muscles to twist him off of her. Simultaneously, she slammed her forearm into his throat. His armor was strong enough to prevent a crushed windpipe, but it would definitely hurt.

They scuffled on the ground and in the end Charlie had him face down on the ground, a knee in his back, and his arms safely secured in a lock. He was incredibly strong, especially since Charlie was pretty sure he was enhancing his extremities with biotic power.

"Garrus, where the fuck are you? I need some help." Charlie growled into the channel. It was taking all of her ability to keep him down and she couldn't use a gun without letting go of one of his arms.

"Stasis. Wearing off now." Garrus' voice strained under the effort of speaking while frozen in stasis.

Eventually Garrus stumbled out and shot the man's arms and legs. Then he raised the lights in the arena and the duo went about the room collecting the soldiers from where they had fallen. They were lined up in a sitting position against a low wall and Garrus and Charlie took up poses in front of them. Charlie stood with one hip tilted up and her arms crossed over her chest and Garrus leaned one arm on her shoulder as he stood at a slight angle. Smug arrogance seemed to drip from their pores or, in Garrus' case, from between their plates.

"Are you going to let them out?"

"I'm waiting for the song to finish." Charlie replied with a wry grin behind her mask.

After about a minute, Charlie switched off the music and announced to the men, "Well I'd say that we win. How about you?"

"What the fuck was that?" said one of the men, who sounded a lot like Daniels.

"That was us winning. Was there something confusing about it?" Charlie replied sarcastically.

"You cheated!" Another man accused.

"Garrus, did we cheat?" Charlie looked up at Garrus with mock sincerity.

"Technically? No. We followed all the rules laid out to us by these soldiers. I mean we could have hacked their suits and crippled them that way or you could have stripped them naked. Don't think that I didn't know that you thought of that, Charlie." Garrus dryly drew the words out.

"See Garrus doesn't think that we cheated. Now I think you all owe us both some apologies and some drinks."

"I am not taking you out for drinks now, bitch." Daniels spat at her.

"Oh honey, I wouldn't sit at a bar with you if it was 2-for-1 Thursday. No, I want you to pay for _our_ drinks. Garrus how thirsty do you feel?"

"Pretty thirsty, I'd say … fifty credits should be enough."

"Alright you owe us a hundred credits."

"The turian said fifty." One of the men spoke up.

Charlie placed a hand on her chest. "I'm thirsty too, though. However, that reminds me of my previous statement. You all owe us an apology. The Lieutenant owes me one, because you are a pig and the rest of you went along with this bastard. I also got the distinct impression that you men didn't care for my friend's species, so you definitely owe him an apology as well."

"Why the fuck would we apologize to you? Just because you beat us in a rigged game does not mean we owe you a damn thing." Daniels was clearly irate at the humiliation.

Charlie crossed the room, crouched down in front of the man, and raised the visor of her helmet. "Because I am Detective Charlie Nacht and this is Detective Garrus Vakarian. If we don't get an apology I'm sure we can find some charge to hold you fine officers overnight at C-Sec on. Isn't that right Garrus?"

"Definitely."

There was a slight pause as Charlie glared into the reflective surface of his helmet. "Fine," Daniels said, his voice cracking slightly under nerves. "I'm sorry I grabbed your ass and I'm sorry about the way I treated Detective Vakarian. If you let me move my arms, then I'll give you the credits."

"Gladly."

Charlie smoothly rose up to a standing position and between her and Garrus they shot all of the men "dead". A computerized voice gave them a score and time on the match and the door hissed open. The men shifted on the ground and stretched out their stiff limbs. Daniels took off his helmet and walked over to Charlie and Garrus.

"I just transferred the money to you. Please leave."

* * *

Garrus walked out of locker room and found Charlie already dressed and waiting for him.

"Do you feel like we just mugged those soldiers?" He asked her.

There was a smile tugging at the corners of Charlie's mouth. "Why? Were you actually going to call C-Sec and write up false charges?"

"It wouldn't have been false charges if Daniels had groped you again. That might qualify as sexual assault." Garrus' straight face was marred by a twitching of his mandibles.

Charlie gave up all pretenses and laughed out loud. "Let's go get drunk on their credits."

At the bar Garrus ordered a very nice Menaen brandy and Charlie had her usual scotch. He was pleased that she had relaxed into her old self, but he was still sure that they needed to talk. Garrus had known Charlie for long enough to know that if he didn't say something soon, she would force whatever was bothering her down and they'd never talk about it.

Garrus took a breath and tried to sound as casual as possible. "So, how have you been?"

Charlie finished her drink with one last swallow and tapped the glass as a signal for another one. "Well I'm living in an apartment alone for the first time in … actually this is the first time. Grace is off-station in a different system and I can't see her for another two weeks. I can barely meet the eyes of my 'best friend'. I've got neighbors, colleagues, reporters, anonymous supporters, and anonymous hatemongers calling me at all hours of the day. I almost got Grace, you, Saren, and a large portion of the Citadel killed because I couldn't talk down a crazy man. And to top all of that off, I got a promotion that up until a week ago I would have said I deserved."

Finished with her statement, Charlie knocked back the freshly filled tumbler of scotch. She promptly made a face and coughed. Garrus watched her and bit back a comment about how you are supposed to sip scotch.

"You missed something in that." He waited until Charlie gave him a tired look. "You almost got killed too."

When Charlie shrugged her shoulders, Garrus grabbed her arm and turned her to face him. "You almost got yourself killed and for what? I saw that look in your eyes, Saren missed it and thought you were playing a gambit, but I know better. You were going to let him kill you to save us and do you know what? You were wrong. It was stupid and reckless; you're supposed to know better than that."

Charlie uncharacteristically let her eyes fall away from his gaze. "I really was going to. I wish I could tell you that I had a plan to go along with that; like I knew that Grace was gearing up for a biotic breakthrough, but I didn't. It was my last play to keep him from killing her, from killing both of you."

"There is always another way that doesn't include a suicidal gambit."

Charlie glared at Garrus at the word "suicide". She looked like she was about to say something, but instead she let her tense shoulders fall and she stared at the empty glass.

"Charlie? Say something. Tell me I'm an ass or something, please." Garrus said.

"I … no. You're right. It was stupid." Charlie lit cigarette and watched the blue swirls of smoke drift into the empty space between them.

It was frustrating Garrus to no end to see her like this. When they had been messing with the Alliance soldiers, he had allowed himself to think that they were going to go back to being friends. But now it seemed they had gone backwards and Charlie was slowly sinking back into her shell. Self-deprecation was not a good look on Charlie.

Garrus ran his talons across his fringe. "Yeah, you can be incredibly stupid, but so can I. Listen, I don't know what happened a few months ago between us, but this has gone on for far too long. I'd like to claim all of the stubbornness, but you definitely contributed. Now I miss my friend, my real one, and I'm trying really hard to talk to her, but she's ignoring me. I don't know if I did something horrible that night or if you did or if it was just really awkward. And yes I know that you were lying and something _actually _happened." He added as Charlie started to open her mouth to speak. "The point is that I don't care. If I did something wrong, I'm so sorry. If you did something wrong, then I don't care. If it was just a horrible cross species liaison, then well I never claimed to have a human fetish. So, let's put this behind us. I don't want one night of drunken stupidity to ruin all of this. I don't have 'feelings' for you and I'm pretty sure that you are asexual and incapable of feeling for anyone." Garrus heard Charlie give off a snort and he took it as a good sign. "So, let's just go back to me being oblivious of your gender and us being friends."

The sentence hung in the smoke drenched air in the bar for far too long. It was beginning to sour when Charlie finally spoke. "What if I did something really bad?"

Garrus rolled his eyes at her and looked at her dryly. "Did you take naked pictures of me with male hanar prostitutes and are now attempting to blackmail me? Just so you know that would never work. You're better off selling those to Fornax for their 'Plates and Tentacles' special issue, because they have been harassing me for _years_ to get a glimpse of all this." He waved a hand luridly down the length of him and took, what he hoped was, a provocative pose at the bar.

Charlie attempted to keep her face straight, but failed miserably and ended up burying her head in her arms and laughing loudly. Garrus let at triumphant grin spread across his face as he took a sip of brandy.

When she finally stopped wheezing, which Garrus privately thought was just a little too much laughing at his expense, Charlie said. "Alright, it wasn't that bad. You're a good man … er turian, Garrus Vakarian. I'm just glad that you didn't decide that we shouldn't get drunk together anymore."

"Spirits forbid it. What would we do together if we didn't drink? I guess there's work and sparring, but that's clearly not enough. So, let's talk about other points you made in your previous confession. You really think that you failed Grace?"

Charlie scowled into her drink and lit a cigarette. "Did you know that Mya's mother told me that Grace was biotic years ago? I completely ignored the woman. I don't think that I failed Grace, I _know_ I did."

"Charlie, you have spent the past six years giving that child all you could. You were more active in her life than most parents and you are single. I'm just saying that I don't think there is anything else that could have been done. Even if you had brought her in for testing, which would have been crazy because there was no way she was biotic as far as you knew, all of this would have played out the same way. Grace would still be taken off-station to a special school. There is nothing you could have done to prevent that. At least you didn't completely cut her out of your life for the past eight months and not tell her why."

Charlie gave him a look. "It's not like you are her parent."

"Charlotte, I'm a little like her parent. I spent almost as much time with her as you did, aside from this year, and I would frequently stay over and watch her overnight. Also I went to all of her school functions and I went to, at least, two of the PTA meetings for you."

Charlie raised a hand to her face. "Oy vey ist mir. We are the most ridiculous family. I can't believe we aren't an NBC sitcom."

Garrus ignored the last sentence as it was a classic Charlie-ism to make references that he didn't understand. He was slowly building a list of them in his head. Sometimes he would catch himself using them to other humans and he was slightly gratified when they didn't understand them either. Garrus typically wrote it off as yet another example of the odd that was Charlie.

"Excuse me, Detective Nacht?" The male voice belonged to a slightly short, yet broad dark-haired male. Garrus recognized him as the biotic from before and subtly braced himself, in case the male decided to take some revenge for the embarrassment.

Charlie turned to size up the male and said, "Kay the biotic, right?"

Garrus judged her words and silently thanked the spirits that she was not drunk. A drunken Charlie was much harder to control.

"Actually, I prefer Alenko." The man scratched the side of his face where a day's growth of facial hair was forming. "Kaidan, if you're feeling informal, but I do prefer Alenko."

Much to Garrus' surprise, Charlie blanched. If he didn't know her better he would have thought she was terrified of the small man.

Eventually Charlie realized the face she was making and she blushed and cleared her throat. "Lieutenant?"

Alenko gave a friendly chuckle. "No, ma'am. It's just Private Alenko. I'm sorry to bother you like this, but I couldn't talk to you in front of the marines. When you said your name … I … I didn't realize it was you. I caught your interview with Wong."

Charlie closed down her face immediately and absently reached behind her for her glass. "Oh."

"No, you don't understand." Alenko nervously scratched the side of his face again. "What you said in the interview was … well I've never heard a non-biotic talk like that to press before. I wanted to personally thank you. I'm sure you're concerned about your daughter. Do you want to talk about it with me? I have some considerable experience in that field."

Garrus saw this as the perfect time to make an exit and stood up to do so, while motioning for Alenko to take his seat.

Charlie quickly snaked out an arm and caught him firmly at the wrist. "Where the fuck are you going? What happened to 'Grace is my daughter too'?" Her obnoxious mimicry of a turian voice would have been extremely offensive to anyone else.

Garrus gave a grumble as he resumed his seat and Alenko took up a stool on the left side of Charlie.

Alenko ordered a beer and Garrus noted the look that he gave Charlie out of the corner of his eye. His eyes stopped at her arm and he muttered a quiet curse.

"What?" Charlie, who was clearly on the defensive, harshly asked.

"I was just thinking that if Daniels and the others had met you dressed like this, they never would have fallen for the 'innocent girl' routine. What happened to your arm? Those are bite marks." Alenko gave Garrus a wary glance, as if he might be rabid. Garrus raised his arms innocently.

Charlie just laughed. "Oh yeah that's where a raptor tried to take a bite out of me back on Mindoir. I say tried, because he ended up with a shotgun to the chest. I know I could get the scars removed, but I like keeping the stories with me." She lifted her forearm so Alenko could get a better look at the old wound.

Alenko's brow furrowed as he studied her arm. "I've never seen a woman with skin like this."

Charlie shrugged, but Garrus interjected. "What's wrong with her skin?"

She gave him a sardonic grin and raised her other arm to Garrus. "I have some gnarly calluses all over me. How have you not noticed this?"

Garrus narrowed his eyes and looked at the rough skin. It wasn't that he didn't know that Charlie was scarred, but he had never compared how she looked to other human females. Now that he was considering this, Charlie was definitely differently shaped and textured.

Alenko's eyes travelled over her arms and shoulders. "What kind of gene mods did you take?" His voice was hushed and slightly troubled.

"Eh, just strength and dexterity, though it was the Mark 3 strength mod."

Alenko's eyes were definitely full of concern now as they snapped to Charlie's face. "I thought that women weren't supposed to go past Mark I."

Charlie groaned and knocked back the rest of her drink. "Actually a man or _woman_ can get the same mods. The strength mod just regulates how large and dense the muscles are. Now it's true that if a woman gets a higher strength mod they might have trouble with pregnancy, because the abdominal muscles are woven too tightly. But I'm not planning on having kids, I can barely keep a handle on Grace and she's an angel, and even if I change my mind I can have surgery to separate the muscles. Most women just opt not to worry about it."

Charlie tapped the side of the tumbler to signal the bartender for another one. "Besides I needed them if I was going to continue to kick this guy's ass." She gave a friendly punch to Garrus' ribs and he only partially feigned the pain.

"Well I feel much better about having my ass handed to me by you. Though that music was so loud it did give you a significant advantage. I can't really handle bright lights or loud noises very well."

"That noise was music and I'm not apologizing for you having a lack of taste."

Kaidan snorted and took a sip of his beer. "I didn't know the rest of it, but The White Stripes in the beginning was a nice touch. Though I haven't heard classic rock used to illicit fear before, well outside of bad old vids."

Charlie's entire demeanor changed so quickly that Garrus almost fell off his stool. She was positively glowing with giddiness. "You know about The White Stripes?" The words were spoken so quickly that Garrus could hardly decipher them.

Alenko looked at her like she was an idiot. "Do I know about Jack White? Are you kidding me? Once he lost that drummer, his career was huge in the 2020s. My dad was kind of an old music buff when I was growing up. His most prized possession was an old physical media disk of White's. So I kind of was forced to listen to that repeatedly as a kid."

"He lost Meg White? I don't know if I should be sad or not. I mean she wasn't the greatest, but I kind of liked the whole shtick they had. So I guess that means that the Raconteurs made it big?"

"Actually …"

Garrus tuned out the conversation at this point, as they were talking about long dead humans that he didn't particularly care about. Eventually, the conversation swung back around to biotics and Grace. Garrus was included again and they proceeded to have a very interesting talk about the girl. Apparently, her innate ability was extremely rare among humans and Alenko was surprised to learn of it. He had also heard very good things about the Ascension program and promised to keep an ear out for anything ill about the instructors there.

The conversation wound down and Garrus was struck by two things. One, was that Alenko was good man and he was pleased that he had sought them out. The other was that Charlie had relaxed and all of the awkward tension that had been present between them had completely dissolved by the end of the night.

* * *

_Author's Note: Alright, I have you all caught up with AO3. This means that we will be moving to my actual schedule which is a chapter every three days. I can't keep up with editing a chapter a day. Just in case anyone was curious the music that Charlie plays is The White Stripes - "Seven Nation Army", Streetlight Manifesto - "Keasbey Nights", and OK Go - "Invincible". _


	26. Chapter 26

**February 2176**

"It's okay, just try it again."

Grace frowned at the woman sitting across from her and then looked back to the black cube on the table. This was pointless. She had not been able to so much as make the cube vibrate in days. This was partly because she wasn't sure how to do it and partly because her mind was far too distracted. Grace, in spite of her empathic abilities, was quite pragmatic. To her things had to flow through a logical reasoning in order to work. Now a normal non-biotic might find it hard to believe that a person with the capacity to bend the laws of physics would so wholeheartedly believe in them, but she did.

Professor Tyrelle might be a brilliant biotic adept, but she didn't understand how Grace manipulated her own biotics. Grace could only use her biotics if she perfectly understood _how_ she was using them. It wasn't like a "force" like Tyrelle was telling her, it was manipulation of laws. She could never go beyond the laws that were written, Grace could only use them. So when Tyrelle was telling her to focus on the block, well that didn't make any sense. What she was actually focusing on was a spot just to the left of the block. All Grace had to do was gather enough matter into a spot and force it into a dense enough region. It was always difficult, mostly because she wasn't entirely sure how she did it. Grace was fairly sure that she was manipulating the bonds between molecules and attracting them to each other, but that only kind of made sense.

This would be so much easier if she could just touch Tyrelle and see what the woman did, but Grace had been told that humans didn't do that. Well Grace was a human and she _did_ do that. It wasn't like melding with an asari. Grace couldn't attune her nervous system or anything, but she could look through someone's eyes and see and feel how they were accomplishing a task. Grace had become very good at doing this without the person even being aware that it was happening, however she didn't like to invade on someone's privacy especially since most people's minds were not ordered enough and they would have extraneous private thoughts flutter up to the surface. The girl knew that it wasn't what asari did, because when she had shown Mya the ability the girl was confused and when Mya had shown her what melding was, Grace was equally confused.

The implants did not seem to be as helpful as the instructors and doctors had claimed either. The L3 was interesting, but it was also painful. Since undergoing her breakthrough, Grace had started developing the biotic tumors, or nodules, in the normal places, like along her spine. However she had also started to develop a secondary organ that was attached to her spine. The doctors had, at first, thought that it was harmful tumor and Char and Garrus had made the trip to the school for her surgery to remove it. That had been terrifying, but then the tumor grew back. Now her body was actively attacking the implant and was trying to remove it. The doctors and technicians were not sure what to make of this development and kept refitting the implant. However, Grace had a feeling that they would eventually have to remove it permanently and that sounded wonderful. The darn thing was always getting in the way of whatever biotic task she was trying to accomplish. It always felt like a battle of wills to do anything.

The cube slowly started to drift towards the spot she had been focusing on. As the object got closer it picked up speed until it came to a quick stop in the location as Grace abruptly released her control.

"Well done." Tyrelle said and made a mark on her data pad.

Grace quickly wiped away the small trickle of blood that had trailed from her nose. If the professor saw it, then she would definitely not allow Grace to go on the trip with Char and Garrus.

Tyrelle made a small tilt of her head as if someone was speaking into her headset. "Well I think that's enough for today. You have some visitors in the lobby and I would hurry over to them."

"How long has Char been waiting?" Grace said with a small amused smile.

"Long enough that she's getting loud, so hurry." Tyrelle gave a longsuffering sigh at the thought of the woman.

Grace started to run through the halls, but then she remembered that she was practically a lady now and ladies don't run. Well Char did, but she was definitely not a lady.

The complex was massive and gorgeous, only a handful of the students were actually biotics and the rest were either highly intelligent or very wealthy. This produced a semi-snobbish air to most of the students, but Grace could fit in to any crowd. Partially it was because of her empathic ability to understand people on a deep level and the other part was that Grace had become a sort of social chameleon. Around Char, she was still a little girl, but she let her mouth get a little dirtier. Around Garrus she became a "princess", because that turian was a giant pushover when faced with any form of femininity. Around Mya, she was a tomboy who could appreciate a good "dirty" story. And around Darius, she let her inner "geekyness", as Char would put it, show, with just a dash of teasing though Grace wasn't entirely sure why she couldn't help but tease the boy.

Social skills were easy and natural to the girl, so finding a place in this new hierarchy had been extremely easy for her. In the beginning, the other biotics were treated as outcasts, but Grace had remedied that quickly enough. She never wanted to be the leader, but she would always lead from the sidelines. Grace was a master at manipulating people, but never wanted the spotlight shone on her. Not that she was shy; Grace just preferred to have the freedom that was ill afforded to popularity.

She was playing out a scene in her head. Grace was wondering what she would find in lobby of Grissom Academy. The first time Char had visited her, the woman had shown up in dungarees and with a pistol, shotgun, and knife strapped openly to her person. Garrus was just wearing a cloth uniform and was sitting calmly in a chair sipping a cup of tea, but Char was slowly sharpening her combat knife while glaring at the security team. That was actually only hilarious in hindsight. If Grace hadn't been quick to lobby, then Char might have lost her cool. Ever since that time, there had been a weapons check before admitting family and Char had decided to make it her personal mission to sneak in guns or knives. The woman claimed it was to show them how lax their security was, but Grace knew that Char just enjoyed picking on the security team. With that thought, Grace quickened her steps. Today was not a day to press their luck. She was finally going to get to leave and have her Bat Mitzvah on Earth, everything had to be perfect.

It had taken months of careful planning to get the teachers and doctors to admit that Grace was in control of her abilities. Besides the unnatural tumor, Grace was a model student. A couple of times she had accidentally used her biotics, but none of the professors knew that. The first time she had been studying in her room and she was extremely concerned about passing an upcoming exam, when her roommate came in. Kastanie was loud and obnoxious, normally Grace welcomed the distracting girl who was a shameless flirt, but that day she had been trying to avoid her. When Kast walked, Grace accidentally threw her out of the dorm room. Thankfully Kast wasn't hurt and, as she is a biotic, she completely understood. Grace didn't though. What concerned Grace was that she couldn't actually use a Throw ability and she had no idea how she had performed the action. It was disconcerting, to say the least. Aside from that outburst, the other accidents were not nearly as violent. Once when she was watching a game of biotiball, a stray ball flung wide on the field and hit her. As the balls are biotically charged, she could have sustained a serious injury; but she instinctually raised a biotic shield around herself and the projectile bounced off.

However the teachers and staff were not aware of those incidents and Grace carefully kept them in the dark concerning the events. She knew that if they thought that she was not in control then they would never let her leave the school and Grace craved freedom. Actually the staff was quite sure that Grace only possessed low levels of biotic ability. Grace wasn't sure what the truth was, but she strongly felt that this was not the case. She thought that she could manipulate the laws of physics at a higher level then she currently was, if she only knew how.

The stress of possibly staying behind in the Academy started to eat at her and she wondered if Char was behaving herself. Why were elevators so darn slow? Char might be an intelligent woman, but she was definitely not a patient one. Garrus might keep her in line, but he tended to indulge her unpredictability as he found it amusing. She had to get to the lobby and quickly if they were actually going to leave for the trip. Grace was nearing the lobby door when she felt the tell-tale tingling at the base of her neck.

_No, not now. Please don't._

The tingling spread to her extremities and centered itself at the small of her back. Grace felt as though she weighed nothing at all, but her body was screaming in pain. Every joint threatened to pull itself apart. She had to focus to make this stop. Grace pulled up the image of the lobby and imagined that she had just arrived there. She would hug Char and Garrus and then leave this station and head to Earth. It would be wonderful, she just had to make this stop and get there.

The spreading sensation turned into a vibration and it made her skin feel warm with the motion, but inside of her it felt like her veins had turned to ice. The air in her lungs was painfully ripped from her body and it took every ounce of self control to not immediately panic. It wasn't that she felt like she was moving quickly, there was no rushing of wind, but Grace had been in the hall when her eyes closed and when they opened she was in a crumpled pile in the lobby.

Grace didn't hear Char cry out, but suddenly the dark-haired woman was standing over her. She tried to speak, but her lungs refused to work. When she started to gasp on the ground, Char rolled her over on her back and checked her mouth. Then the woman began CPR and a few short moments later Grace was breathing normally. Her lungs were ablaze with pain, as well as her ears, mouth, nose, and eyes. The eyes were definitely the worst, Grace was almost blind.

Her voice was still not working properly, as she couldn't hear herself protest the blanket Garrus had somehow found and was wrapping around her. It was odd that she was shaking, because she didn't feel cold; actually she felt like she was on fire. Grace was concerned with the amount of blood she was covered in though. It seemed to being pouring out of her from multiple places.

There was an odd rushing noise in her ears and it was too loud to make out what everyone was saying. Char and Garrus seemed to yelling something at the receptionist and Grace just held onto the two adults. It was hard to focus on staying conscious with all of the pain, but she couldn't let them take her to the Grissom hospital without them. Panic had definitely settled into Grace's mind, she couldn't hear or see very well or comfortably use her limbs. Garrus sat behind her and laid her head on his uniformed chest. Grace immediately relaxed. She didn't know what was going on, but she could feel the vibrations of him humming to her. It was comforting and reminded Grace sadly of being younger and being home.

"What are you talking about? How could this be decompression sickness?"

Garrus placed a hand on Charlie's shoulder and she didn't shrug it off.

The male doctor with graying temples wisely ignored Charlie's attitude and continued with his report. "Miss. Wallis' condition is indicative of brief exposure to the vacuum of space. This is observed from the decompression sickness, the rupturing of blood vessels on exposed skin, the hypothermia, and rapid evacuation of air from her lungs. We are expecting a full recovery, however, as the exposure must have been extremely brief. It would be helpful if you could repeat the events for my ears."

Garrus could feel Charlie trembling under his palm and decided to take the lead. "We were standing in the lobby with only the receptionist. There was a slight electrical feeling in the air, a feint smell of ozone, and a pressure shift before Grace appeared. There was no flash of light to announce her presence, one moment she wasn't there and the next she was. Grace crumpled to the ground and began to bleed out. When Charlie reached her, Grace was conscious but wasn't breathing. She performed CPR and Grace could then breathe on her own. Her skin was brittle and cracked to the touch. When she started to glow blue with biotics, we calmed her down. That is when the paramedics arrived."

Garrus' calm recitation belied the anxiety building under his plates. When Grace had appeared he had been momentarily struck with panic and Charlie's cry had awoken him to movement. Garrus had thought he was witnessing Grace's death. The scream that ripped from her mouth after Charlie had forced her lungs to work had chilled his blood. So he held her and desperately tried not to jostle her brittle flesh as he mourned internally. Charlie, however, was not handling this well at all. Garrus had never seen her like this. The woman could face down a charging krogan while wearing nothing but a smile or calmly handle a hostage situation where she was a hostage, but the uncertainty of Grace's condition had cracked her. Garrus was forced into being the calm reasonable one as Charlie's mood shifted wildly from panicked crying to blind rage. He had seen her rage before, but never cry. She had been clinging to him and the salty smell of her tears had filled his senses; it was horrid.

The doctor slowly nodded his head as he compared Garrus' tale of events to his chart. "Would you say that the experience was similar to a relay jump?"

Garrus rapidly blinked his eyes as he considered this; however Charlie found her voice first. "What the fuck are you talking about? Are you hiding a small relay on the station? What does this line of questioning have to do with how my little girl is doing? When can I see her?"

Charlie's mood had definitely swung back around to rage and Garrus tightened his hold on her shoulder, in case she decided to attack the doctor. He didn't think that she would, but Charlie was not exactly rational right now.

The doctor did not seem impressed by the outburst and calmly looked between Charlie's reddened face, Garrus' hand on her shoulder, and Garrus' own face with its plates locked firmly to the sides. He took a deep breath and said, "You may see her now, but she is asleep. Miss Wallis should wake within the hour. I will keep her here for a few days for observation."

The doctor left them alone in the hall outside of Grace's door. The pair stood there for a moment silently studying the metal door before Charlie cleared her throat and stepped through the doorway. The door dutifully slipped open and shut behind them. Grace was lying on the hospital bed covered in tubes. If it was possible for her to look worse then she had when they last saw her eight hours ago, she did. Her skin was mottled with red patches and bruises, the blood had been cleaned away but there were tiny red veins showing through her pale skin. Charlie started trembling again and Garrus pulled her against him. He had never hugged her before, he had been this close before, but that was usually on the mat. This was different. This was two grown adults seeking each other's comfort, because the closest person either of them had to a daughter had been horribly injured and they were terrified. Garrus was surprised at how easily their vastly differing body types fit together.

Eventually Charlie broke the embrace and passed a hand across her eyes to dry her tears. With a nod of thanks to Garrus, she took a chair next to Grace's bed. As Garrus took a seat opposite her, he marveled at humans. They could quietly show emotions in the form of tears while turians were left with only vocal options. He was almost jealous of them. Of course humans wouldn't be able to hear the hidden dual tones of grief, but Charlie would have felt the soft rumbling in his chest when he held her. Some part of him hadn't wanted to let her go, but he firmly squashed that thought. This was neither the time nor the place for those thoughts and the last time he had expressed those emotions had gone so poorly that clearly he should never try again. So he mentally drowned the treacherous emotion and resumed his silent watch over Grace.

* * *

Grace could feel Char and Garrus before she was fully conscious. They must have been near her. Garrus was emanating grief and concern and something else, Grace wasn't sure what it was but it stemmed from anxiety over something. Char was stronger, but Grace had always been sensitive to her guardian's emotions. Grief and concern were present as well, but there was also rage barely suppressed and it was directed at the Academy, Grace was sure of that. Floating under the surface was a barely noticeable feeling of regret. Grace couldn't get a clear read on that one, but it may have been directed at Garrus. She wondered what else had happened to the adults while she had been unconscious.

Grace could feel the sensation of possessing a corporeal body again and knew that her mind was waking up. There wasn't any pain, but there was a foggy numbness that was indicative of heavy medication. Her eyelids felt like weights had been attached to them as she struggled to look around.

There was a shuffle of clothing and creak of a chair beside her bed and Grace said a mental prayer that she could hear again.

"Grace, hold on. Garrus will get a nurse so you can wake up." The last sentence was clearly not directed at her and Grace could hear another chair creak and some footsteps as Garrus presumably left the room.

A few minutes later, a nurse had removed something from Grace's mouth and given her a medication that allowed her to fully wake up; though movement seemed beyond her capabilities.

When Grace was able to look around at the people surrounding her, she was struck by how haggard they appeared. Dark circles had formed under Char's eyes and her clothes were crumpled and there was some blood on her. Garrus somehow looked worse. His face looked almost the same, but his facial plates were drooping lower and his clothes were a complete wreck. Large dark red patched dotted his front.

"I'm sorry." Grace simply said.

Char reached over and brushed her hair away from her face. "Honey, you shouldn't be sorry."

Grace flitted her eyes over the bloodstains on their clothes and said, "I made us miss our trip to Earth." It wasn't what she wanted to say, but she didn't know how to apologize for what had happened.

Garrus spoke for the first time. "That's alright. I heard that it's far too cold in North America right now. I've been trying to find an excuse to put this off for months."

Charlie punched Garrus in the arm. "Snow is fantastic, by the way, and there isn't any in Florida. Your scaly hide would have survived the beach."

Garrus rubbed his arm. "Woman, how do you always hit the same spot every single time?"

Grace laughed softly at the antics of the pair. This felt like home and she missed having the two around her. They would always resort to physical violence laced with humor to make her feel better.

"How do you feel?" Garrus asked her seriously.

"Right now, I don't feel much of anything. When the painkillers wear off I'll let you know."

The adults sat back down in their chairs and they talked about everything and nothing for a while. About how school was going or her new friends on the station or Char's promotion or really anything benign and normal, eventually Grace said, "Why haven't you asked me how I did it or what I did?"

The turian and the human shared a look and then Char replied, "I figured that you'd tell us eventually."

Grace looked down at the bruised flesh on her arm. "I don't know what happened. I was excited and nervous about the trip. Sometimes the implant seems to pick up on my subconscious thoughts and it just … does things. I can't explain it very well."

"We met a biotic on the Citadel and he explained how it worked to us." Charlie said, "He said that eventually you get used to manipulating it and controlling your emotions, but it can be difficult and take some time. Technically it just works as an amplifier. During your initial breakthrough you had similar problems. It'll get better."

Grace didn't get angry very often, but she could feel the first twinges of the emotion grip her. "What are you talking about? Everything I did then was on purpose."

Charlie blinked at her and sat back. "What?"

"When that man, Bill, grabbed you and put a gun to your head, I pulled him and his friend together and lit them on fire from the inside. I knew what I was doing. It wasn't easy, I had to concentrate and manipulate the situation. What happened today was completely different. I had no control and it just happened! I don't understand what is going on, but I'm pretty sure the effort burned out the implant. No one will listen to me and I'm not like the others here. They don't understand how it works; they just blindly 'will' things into happening."

Char didn't say anything to this and instead furrowed her brows. Garrus said, "Tell us what you mean, Grace."

"First, is my implant burnt out?"

Garrus walked over to the console on the wall and typed some commands into the orange screen. He turned back to her and said, "They have taken the implant off-line for now."

Grace sighed in relief, she really hated the device. "Alright, well … it's difficult to explain. You know how gravity works? How everything attracts?"

Char's brow furrowed deeper and she nodded.

"Well the easiest thing to do is to gather a matter into a dense enough space. That it will 'pull' objects towards it. I'm really not sure how I prevented everyone from flying towards it when I did it to those men, but I think it had something to do with a field I generated around them. I can only do things that are physics based. I can't 'will' anything into existence. I can't create matter; I can only manipulate the bonds." Grace looked at the confused faces of the adults and sighed.

"Do you have a bobby pin I can borrow, Char?"

After she received the pin, Grace laid it on her stomach and began the tedious process a few inches above the pin. Without the implant to interfere with her attempt, the experiment was much easier and quicker than it was before with Professor Tyrelle. The pin gave a little twitch and slowly drifted up to the region of space. Grace held it there and gave a pointed look to Char.

The woman didn't say anything for a moment, and then asked, "How long have you been able to do this?"

"I never really tried before on the Citadel." Grace responded, "I could do that thing with people's minds like I told you, but that didn't really go beyond having secret conversations with Mya." There was a slight pause as she considered it. "I think I could have though, if I really wanted to."

Garrus and Char shared another look. "Grace," Garrus began. "Why do you think the implants aren't working and have you told anyone?"

"I told the teachers in the beginning, but they told me I was just scared and that everyone was nervous in the beginning. I think the implants _are_ working, but they are running counter to what I want them to. Like they are picking up what I want to happen and trying to help, but I'm focusing on something else entirely. It's a battle to get my mind and the implants on the same page."

"I think I should have a talk with the doctor and administrator." Char announced.

"Please don't do that. I can figure it out or eventually they will. Please don't make a big deal out of this." Grace said, vocalizing the fear of every thirteen-year-old.

Char smiled briefly and then turned serious once again. "I'm sorry, Grace, but this is important. I'm not going to do anything rash, but the teachers need to know that there is a problem with the implants. They can't force you to have them. You still have rights. In the beginning, it seemed like a good idea to get them, but if they aren't working for you … then we'll have them removed and they can just deal with that."

Grace tried not to pout, but Char had a way of making the lives of her teachers miserable. She had done it on the Citadel and she was doing it again. Grace really didn't want the implants and she was happy that they might be removed, but tact was not one of Char's strong suits. She gave Garrus a hopeful glance.

He chuckled at her and said, "Don't worry, I'll go with her. Besides I think it might be a good idea to have you take some more classes in Physics if that's what you're basing your biotics after. There are definitely more intriguing things than levitating objects and remotely lighting things on fire. Not that that doesn't sound extremely useful and impressive."

He gazed intently at the back of Char's head and wiggled his fingers as if attempting to light her hair on fire. When Grace giggled at the image, Char crossed her arms and said dryly, "Don't think I don't know what's going on back there."


	27. Chapter 27

**July 2176**

Detective Charlie Nacht sat back down in her stupid chair and grimaced at the stacks of data pads. She may have just been anthropomorphizing them, but she could swear that any moment they would stand up and start taunting her. The coffee was not helping, it was disgusting and she had no one to blame but herself as she was the only human in the department. Charlie had honestly thought that being a detective would mean that she would actually be able to get _real_ police work done, but her transfer to Vice was not what she thought it would be. If anyone had asked her, she would have definitely picked this department though. Working to prevent crimes like illegal prostitution, drugs, and contraband was exactly what Charlie had wanted to do. The problem was that she wasn't doing that.

Mostly it was paperwork. She had to keep track of who the major players were and trace their movements. Then if and only if she was really sure, she could submit a form for a raid. Then it would take quite a bit of office politics to get the request pushed through quickly enough for the bust to be a success. It was a nightmare. Charlie tried to stay calm and remind herself that it was a good thing that it took so long. She wouldn't want a police force that could knock down a door on the slightest whim, but it was definitely getting harder to tell herself that.

Of course her nerves were also frayed due to the headache that was her old precinct. Charlie had thought that she could continue to help her old contacts after she got the promotion. She still cared about the prostitutes and duct rats, but it had gotten to be far too much. Eventually, she had talked to Officer Bailey and asked if he wouldn't mind taking her place. He was good at the job and responded well to the duct rats, but the girls were not a fan of him. Bailey didn't do anything wrong, they just preferred Charlie and still called her first. In the beginning, she had continued to take the calls, but now it was just getting to be too much and she was going to have to put her foot down. The prospect of backing out on the people who needed her, sickened Charlie. She knew she couldn't do it all, but maybe she could try just a little bit harder.

"Nacht, we've got a live one! Homicide is already on scene, but it's one of ours." Chellick kicked the back of her chair to further get her attention.

Detective Chellick had been her assigned partner since her first day and he had been wonderful. Really it was a minor miracle that Charlie was getting along so well with someone who wasn't Garrus. The turian was a little laidback in appearance and attitude, but was passionate about his work. He was always professional when he needed to be and Charlie was definitely a fan of his.

"Who is it?" Charlie asked as she slipped on the suit jacket draped across the back of her chair. There wasn't really a standard uniform for humans, yet. So Charlie had decided on professional attire. She rarely wore her light armor suit under her clothes anymore. Instead she wore black slacks, a button-up collared shirt, usually white, and a plain black sport jacket. It was simple and professional. She still kept all of the weapons though now they were concealed.

"Draven Ellonius."

"Holy shit." Charlie stopped moving and looked at her partner. "Who the fuck is crazy enough to tangle with him?"

Chellick spread his mandibles wide. "Let's go find out."

The scene at Vehovna Heights was … bloody. Really there weren't many other words to describe it. Horrific wasn't quite right, because Charlie wasn't horrified at finding the drug lord dead. Ghastly was a little much, though it did accurately describe the emotion she felt at seeing his hands and feet staked to the bed. Nauseating was probably the closest to how her stomach was feeling as she leaned over the body to look into the burned out eyes. However the scene as a whole could be best described with the word bloody though the blood was of the blue variety.

"Welcome to the party, Nacht." A familiar deep voice said behind her.

"Vakarian, I should have known it'd be you here."

"Are you kidding? I had to fight the others to get this one. Draven Ellonius turns up dead in a brutal and ritualistic murder, the boys in homicide were crawling all over themselves to get this one."

Charlie turned to look at the cobalt tattooed turian and asked. "So what are you thinking, oh great and powerful Detective Vakarian?"

Garrus shrugged off the insult and turned professional in an instant. "The body has not been moved and from the amount of blood on the scene, it's clear he was murdered here. Ellonius was definitely alive when they mutilated him. Aside from the staking and gouged eyes there's this."

He lifted the sheet that had been partially covering the dead man and Charlie almost lost the coffee that was sitting on her empty stomach. Ellonius' lower body had been cut open and some organs had been removed, they had been replaced by what now appeared to be dead coals.

Garrus glanced at Charlie and noted her pale skin and the slight heaving in her chest as she covered her mouth. "Yeah, that's what I did when I got here. The smell has mostly been taken care of by ventilation, but it was bad. I have done some research and I'm thinking that we're looking for human extremists."

Charlie covered her mouth with her hand and started to analyze the body and its position. "Was his tongue removed?"

"No."

"What kind of wood is that?" Charlie motioned to the stakes.

Garrus checked his omni-tool. "It's not actually wood. It's a poly-resin that looks like wood. Probably taken off of a chair as actual wood is fairly expensive."

Charlie nodded her head and motioned towards the stomach. "What was the heating element used on his abdomen? Was it actually coal?"

"Again coal is fairly hard to come by on a station, so no. They are fire stones." At the slightly confused look on Charlie's face, he added. "They are used to cook outdoors in the military. Essentially they are metal 'stones' that are filled with a chemical that heat when activated. This has all of the classic signs of ritualistic human extremist activity."

Charlie shook her head. "It looks like that, but I don't think that's what it is. Look, if this was just a bunch of anti-turian humans, then they would have done a better job. If there's one thing that we humans love, it's tradition. The stakes would have actually been wood, the coals would have, at least, been charcoal, and his tongue would probably have been removed."

"Why would his tongue have been removed?"

"To prevent his lying turian tongue from spreading more lies."

Garrus looked at her and blinked.

Charlie raised her hands. "I didn't say that I believe that. Most turians tell very nice truths, however some of them ..." She gave Garrus a look and then rolled her eyes at him.

"So do you have anything better than postulation?"

Charlie shrugged and nodded her head towards the living room. "The guards were shot. Professional hit. The thing about the tongue still bothers me though. I think that you're partly right; this was humans but not an extremist group with religious ties. This was done by humans who were torturing Ellonius for information and they used a very human way to do it."

Garrus considered this possibility. "That could work, but why would they do it like this? This just seems like a lot of legwork and drama for torture."

Charlie walked over the bedroom door and shouted. "Chellick, who's next in line after Ellonius?"

There was pause followed by Chellick shouting back at her, "Kyrnee I think."

"Shit." Charlie muttered as she leaned against the doorframe. "Kyrnee is notoriously paranoid and anti-human."

"This was done by a new player then. Someone trying to clear the Lemures out of the Citadel."

Charlie mulled this thought over. "It's going to take more than killing Ellonius to accomplish that. We might have a farkakte war on our hands."

"There's another possibility." Garrus mused as they stepped into the living room to steal away from the dead body. "This could be a ploy by Kyrnee to make a grab for the throne."

Charlie pulled up her omni-tool and ran an intel sweep on Kyrnee. After a few minutes, she said. "Could be, but it's doubtful. Ellonius was known as being the technical figurehead of the Lemures, but Kyrnee was the brains and money. I doubt she would have any reason to pull something like this. She's controlled from the shadows for years now. The last confirmed image and voice match we have on her is over five years old. When I say she lived in the shadows, I mean it. Someone like that doesn't want to be seen and I can only imagine that her paranoia has doubled after she has no doubt found out about Ellonius' death."

"Wait, how would she know? We've kept this quiet." Garrus asked indignantly.

Charlie gave him a sardonic look and folded her arms across her chest. "Let's pretend for a second that everyone as C-Sec is actually a white knight with untarnished virtue. Then I would bet money that the building manager's first call was to Kyrnee and only after she gave him the go ahead did he place a call into C-Sec."

"Well aren't we cynical today." Garrus shook his head at Charlie. "I don't actually know much about Ellonius and the Lemures. What can you tell me?"

Charlie perched on the arm of the expensive couch. "Draven Ellonius grew up here on the Citadel. He grew up hard too. Duct rat till he was twelve which was when he formed a gang called the Kellovs."

Garrus started to chuckle at this point. "Really he called his gang the Kellovs? Spirits, that's _exactly_ the kind of name you think is awesome you're twelve."

Charlie furrowed her brow as she really did not like not getting a joke. Pride contested her asking for an explanation, but logic and reason won out. She was, after all, a detective now and she needed all of the facts. "Is this a turian thing?"

"Wellan Kellov was something of a folk villain. 400 years ago this turian broke ranks and left a battlefield. When he returned home to Palaven, he was ostracized by his family and police were looking for him to bring him to justice. So he went on a killing spree and supposedly died in a shootout. Now there's a lot more lore to this story. However there are very few actual 'facts' and mostly Kellov is a scary bedtime story on why a good turian never leaves a battlefield."

"Oy vey, that sounds incredibly turian. It doesn't really matter though. Anyways, Ellonius' Kellovs were only around for a few years. They were mostly a virus tagging group. Find a mark, tag him with a virus, and watch his credits leak from the crack in his firewall; very small time and only non-violent crimes. This was when he first met Kyrnee, as far as we can tell. They formed the Lemures together out of the dregs of the Kellovs and started selling for another gang. Eventually, the other gang just left. About twenty years ago that gang, Ari'Ellis, just disappeared. There wasn't a war or anything, one day the Ari'Ellis were in charge of the Kithoi ward and the next the Lemures were. Not many people actually complained about it either. The Lemures very rarely left bodies and they ran a tight ship. They effectively lowered the crime rate in the ward. Of course it helped that a major contributor every year to the C-Sec charity ball was Draven Ellonius, who was a major business and property owner. No charge on him or Kyrnee has ever stuck. Neither Ellonius nor Kyrnee ever went into the military, so they aren't citizens. However, they _are_ both extremely wealthy and have managed to stay off the radar of the Hierarchy. Technically the turian government could have forced them back to Palaven as non-citizens aren't allowed outside of turian space, but they 'mysteriously' never did."

"I don't understand why did Ellonius and Kyrnee live so differently? There aren't any pending charges on Kyrnee, so why does she hide?"

"Because Draven came from the streets and dreamed of living in a high-rise with lots of credits. Pira Kyrnee came from a rather wealthy and prominent family. She was a run-away and I think she spent too much time in hiding, to ever feel comfortable in the open."

Garrus took a small step backwards and let his mouth hang open. "Tell me she wasn't Primarch Kyrnus' daughter."

"Got it in one, very nicely done." Charlie shrugged and went on. "Yeah, she ran away when Kyrnus was still Primarch. From what I've heard he wasn't known for being a nice man, so I can imagine her home life was hell. Especially since it's not like you can go to the police when your dad is the Primarch. Anyways, these days she's a little unstable herself. Oh, don't get me wrong, Kyrnee's smart, brilliant even, but she's a little bit insane. That's why I highly doubt it was her who did this."

Garrus shook his head at the implications and said, "So you're thinking that this is a start-up who is looking for war?"

"That's my personal feeling, however I can't prove it. It just makes the most sense to me."

Chellick walked into the living room from the kitchen. "I agree, Nacht. I just got off the phone with the techs, they say the cameras went dark around 0800 this morning and again at around 1100. No looping feed or anything, just dark. It's sloppy and unprofessional, which is not what you would expect from a hit like this. Now the techs have also gone over the weapons used and they cannot find a match. They must be manufactured by an independent business."

"Check with the individual systems and see if anyone has seen them before." Garrus interrupted. "Surely Sur'Kesh or Palaven has seen these weapons."

"Shit, this is going to be a big fat mess." Charlie muttered.

Charlie had a horrible feeling that she would later eat those words.

* * *

**September 2176**

Garrus hefted the thin datapad in his hand and wondered briefly how much damage he could to the wall if he threw it. Not much he reasoned, as the pad was just a thin sheet of plastic. The report listed on it was more of the same. No one knew where the murder weapons had originated from. They had been seen before, but only by small groups and no government had ever captured any. It was frustrating work; because only the intelligence agencies had any knowledge of the weapons and they were loathe to share their meager information. In the mean time, the nameless group had struck two more times; once to a red sand warehouse and once to a large stash house. Garrus still didn't have any real leads, though Charlie's earlier prediction of a gang war in the Kithoi ward was slowly becoming a reality. The Lemures had begun to heavily arm their members and that was causing completely different problems.

Garrus looked at the datapad again. He really did not want to go to the stupid event, but he had promised Charlie that she wouldn't be left to go alone. It was a human even and it was to mark the 11th anniversary of humanity's presence on the galactic stage. Garrus groaned at being forced to attend. Charlie had received her invitation with a stern Anita Goyle twisting of her arm. Apparently the first human detective needed to make an appearance. He was also fairly sure that he was going to be the only non-human in attendance so that was going to make this … interesting. But he had promised her that he would be there.

Garrus rubbed his eyes and glanced at the time. Confirming that is was time for a break and lunch, he stood up and went to find Charlie.

He found her hunched over her desk growling, in a very turian manner, over what she found there. It was almost eerie hearing the noise emanating from her throat, but she had gotten pretty good at it. Garrus could usually pick out which emotion she was displaying, though the frustration growl she was practicing right now wasn't particularly difficult.

"Hey, stop that and let's get some food. I believe it's your turn to buy." He gave the chair a firm kick.

Charlie flung the pad onto the desk and turned to glare at him. The angry glare quickly shifted into a tired expression. "Sorry about that. Yeah, let's eat."

Garrus watched mesmerized as she reached behind her head and swiftly gathered her dark curls into a loose "french braid", Charlie had called it. He had seen her do this hundreds of times, but the action never ceased to amaze him. Her many tiny fingers were so much better suited for this task, it was just so completely alien in appearance.

The walk to the deli was a practiced routine at this point and they quickly found themselves standing in line for lunch.

"So now I'm thinking that I just need to find some way to communicate directly with the 'princess'. Well I guess Chellick would have to, because she would never talk to me." Charlie said. She had started calling Pira Kyrnee the "princess" a while ago, so they could discuss work outside of the office.

"She's too crazy to gain an 'audience' with. She's definitely being hunted right now and any attempt you made to parlay would only be met with force."

"I know." Charlie sighed. "But if I could just talk to her. Hell at this point I just want this whole 'war' to end. I would prefer her crazy to the alternative murderous crazy of these humans."

Garrus was about to respond, but he was interrupted by a human male voice from behind him. "Excuse me are you Charlotte Nacht?"

Charlie narrowed her eyes and sized up the male. Garrus unconsciously mirrored her stance. The male was taller than Charlie, probably about 6'3'', brown-haired, and had large green eyes. His voice was deep, but friendly. Garrus braced himself to defend Charlie against another crazy human, they varied between admirers and hating her. Either way they tended to be fanatics and it was definitely getting old.

"I am and you are?" Charlie's voice was seeped with dry boredom.

"Andrew Pryce, I'm a visiting historian and I'm a little bit of a fan of yours. I just got here from Earth, South Carolina in fact, and I wasn't expecting to run into you like this." Andrew's tone was congenial and even though his words put him in the 'fanatic' category, the manner in which he said them was casual and non-threatening.

"Oh, well I'm just getting lunch … so … it was nice meeting you, Mr. Pryce."

There was silence for a long enough time that Garrus thought they had successfully avoided the encounter.

However, Pryce said, "I actually came to Earth, because of the interview you gave to Emily Wong. You said that we needed to work with other species and that they are more similar to us than we like to think. So, here I am. If I could just ask you one thing, do you have any advice for working with asari? Most of the historians here tend to be asari and their behavior can be … confusing."

Garrus saw Charlie hang her head in resignation before she turned back around to face Andrew. "Just remember that just because they look female, they don't actually have gender. It's very easy to mistake their behavior as sexual innuendo. Don't underestimate them, don't talk down to them, and don't idolize them either. It's too simple to put them all in the same box. I've met asari that make a teenage girl look like a hellion and I've met asari that flay your flesh off your body without taking a break from sipping their tea. They are just like us, they just live longer and are much more powerful."

Satisfied with her response she turned back around in line. Pryce continued speaking. "That makes sense. It's actually the curator that's driving me crazy at the moment. She has her own ideas about human history and won't take an actual human historian's viewpoint. How did you deal with Executor Pallin?"

Charlie gave Garrus a "help me" look and turned back to Pryce and simply said. "I didn't have any problems with him. He's not exactly a 'Rawls' to my 'MacNulty'."

Garrus didn't know what that meant, but he heard the dismissal of the conversation in her tone.

Pryce did not hear it. "Well of course he's not. You're not nearly Irish enough to be a MacNulty, also you're far too lovely to be a man." When Charlie didn't respond to the compliment Andrew continued. "I wasn't expecting such an intelligent reference from you. I can't remember the last time I discussed The Wire with someone who wasn't a historian."

Charlie leaned back and looked suspiciously at Andrew. "How do you know about The Wire?"

"I'm a historian, I specialize in the 20th and 21st century American history. 'A man must have a code.'"

"'Oh, no doubt.'" Charlie immediately responded under her breath and then stretched her face into a wide grin.

Garrus was not sure what just happened, but apparently Andrew was allowed to stay in their group. The two humans continued to talk about history throughout lunch and Garrus, who was not particularly well versed in human history, felt left out. It was nice though to see Charlie relax and enjoy herself; the woman had been so tightly wound for the past few months.

Then Andrew made a colossal mistake, he said. "Would you like to go out sometime? Like on a date? I haven't met someone so fascinating in very long time."

Garrus paused with the sandwich part way to his mouth. He had been trying to get Charlie to go out with someone for years, but the woman simply refused to comply. She had shot down every man who had asked and usually shut down all communication with the individual. It was brutal and extremely frustrating for Garrus. He had managed to thoroughly squash any attraction he felt for her and she was once again firmly in his "friend" category, but he wanted her to find someone, anyone really.

So, he almost dropped his sandwich when she said. "Sure, that sounds great." Which she quickly followed with, "Actually I have this event I'm going to on Saturday, maybe you'd like to come with me?"

Andrew immediately agreed and got the details of the ball. As soon as Garrus and Charlie stepped into the elevator alone, he turned to her. "I'm impressed, Charlie. Going on dates with strange men seems like an almost normal activity."

"Don't think you're getting out of going too. I had to twist Goyle's arm to let you attend and I'm not letting that effort go to waste. Besides I might need some backup, if this thing goes pear shaped."

"Spirits Charlie, when was the last time you went on a date? Here's a helpful tip, most dates don't require someone on your six." He paused briefly and then added. "Well … the good ones might."

Charlie started counting on her fingers and got to seven before she clenched her fists and replied. "I don't know how long it has been. A while. Anyways if this ends with someone on my six, I give you permission to leave at that point." She said with a wink.

_Author's Note: I've been having some issues posting this. So I'm sorry about the delay. So I have taken some liberties and proclaimed The Wire to be important to historians in the future. Actually, I genuinely believe that it will be. It is an interesting slice of Americana and it was fantastic writing and directing. I think that anyone who has watched the show will agree with that. _

_By the way, I have hit a slight writer's block. Nothing serious hopefully and I still have quite a bit written so hopefully that will last while I wrack my brain on how to end a particular story arc. I'm just letting you all know, because it is currently all I can think about. :)_


End file.
